Grandma's Country Lager

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2/8/2021
recipe creation.

malt :
considered using at least a portion of 6row malt which has higher diastatic power; this is/was used for classic (particularly pre-prohibition) american lager to ensure enough enzymes to convert the starch in the corn (which seems to have very low diastatic power). i think this recipe is using relatively low amount of corn adjunct for the style. this is partly because i would like to have a decently malt / body to the beer and also would like to just use my normal 2row base malt and not have to order more stuff from the homebrew store.

corn :
flirted with the idea of using flaked corn, its a little more expensive, for some reason id rather use something from the grocery store. popped popcorn and corn flakes cereal are options but kind more in the direction of a goofy brew. im reading a little about raw corn : it needs gelatinizing before the starches can be freed up enough to convert to sugar in a mash. you'd need to cook it first to do this step. wondering what about thawed frozen corn, maybe thats already been cooked, would that work? anyway this all seems a little goofy still. maybe for another brew. anyway for this i will use a can of instant corn grits. (not convinced this will add any flavor, so really does it even make any sense to use this as opposed to corn sugar? if we're gonna do corn sugar might as well do cane sugar? i guess lets just go with the corn grits since we havent done it before)

it sounds like quick grits we can just drop into the mash without doing a cereal mash beforehand (this is what i did previously with instant rice). (ref: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/quick-grits-confused.431229/)

gravity / abv :
id like this to come to 4.5% but not sure how much the grits will convert so im setting it to 5%abv to give a little slack in case the efficiency is bad.

water :
build from distilled. minor calcium chloride addition. i tried fooling with BF light lager profile but it has this HCO/bicarbonate level that i am not sure with what i am supposed to add to increase the HCO levels to the target. anyway just go with the czech pilsner profile i have used in the past. i looked up some light lager water profiles and they are similar to this.

hops :
gonna use these old frozen wet hops hopefully theyre not bad.

yeast :
going back and forth between 34/70 and lutra. would like to try lutra but i do like the sulfur notes of 34/70 but maybe its not quite appropriate for this beer. also considering some maybe 2007 i do remember it was pretty clean tasting.