LiD'A Sapporo Clone

This is a first attempt to clone Sapporo Premium Lager from Japan.

Basis of recipe:
1) This beer uses rice as a main ingredient. I'm using rice syrup.
2) Buckwheat is also an ingredient. (Alternatively, Sorgum)
3) To legally be a "Premium" beer in Japan, it must be brewed with at least 75% barley malt.

Using the calculator and my stardard equipment sizes, I put in 900g of rice syrup (2x 450g jars), 500g of buckwheat (1 bag), and then barley malt until it hit the 4.9% abv of a Sapporo. That comfortably came to 76% malt. (I don't know yet if the buckwheat and rice sugar are in the correct ratio. But I don't want to weight out sticky syrup. So two full jars.)

My kettle is an Arsegan Easybrew 50. Similar (identical) to many other imports (Brewmonk, Hopcat, ?). My fermenters hold 30L and this fits easily in the (actually 45L) kettle. So that determines my batch size. 30L of wort after the boil usually produces 4 cases of beer (ie. just under 28L after racking and bottling losses.)

W-34/70 yeast was chosen because of the very high attenuation (with light grains) and the fact that there's some in my fridge. Any good lager yeast will do, but the drier the better.

Sapporo invented the Sorachi Ace type of hops. They never sold a beer brewed with it. They prefer to use "American" hops according to what I've read. Estimates of the IBU of a Sapporo range from 18 to 22 IBU. So I'm using Simcoe hops (one of my favourites) and 20 IBU as the target. With such a dry beer, there should be a subtle bitter finish, but not too much. You might consider 15 IBU but I think 25 IBU would be too much.

Sapporo has no hops aroma when you drink it. Thus, no second drop for aroma hops. Only bittering.

The malt calculations started with only Pilsner malt. I added Vienna malt to bring a bit of colour and maltiness to the beer. These still keep the end result very dry. This is the least malt I have ever used in a 30L brew, so not sure what the result will be. With a total of 3.9kg I don't think it will be too malty. I normally use 7.5 to 8.5 kg for a 30L brew.

I will adjust the recipe and update the notes in the future.