Munich Dunkel

I still remember my first experiences with lager.  The very first was a sip of my dad's Old Milwaukee when I was eight; I can't say it agreed with me.  In college in Boston, Sam Adams frequently showed up at parties, and while it was one of my first welcome introductions to craft beer, I can't say I was really taken with it.  And at the tender age of twenty one, I was offered my first Bud by the drummer of a band for whom I was working merch; the fact that it had about the same taste as a glass of water did not make a great impression.  Following experiences like this, my initial homebrewing instinct was to stick to ales; they were by far what I preferred to drink.  While I've had a few decent craft lagers over the years, I was never swayed to try making one myself.

That was, until I spent a week in Santiago, Chile last October.  Chilean beer is currently experiencing a craft renaissance, but the traditional beers of the country (and many other South American countries) are German lagers.  I had a number of really exceptional lagers while there, but the one that really nailed it for me is the one pictured here: deeply malty and supremely drinkable.  It wasn't too hard a sell sitting in an outdoor cafe in downtown Santiago, enjoying the Southern Hemisphere's early spring weather.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the brewery that produced it, so I couldn't look into it further.  But it was the beer that finally inspired me to really give lager a shot at home.

Lacking a lot of lager knowledge, I couldn't decide if the beer from my memories of Chile was a Vienna lager or a Munich dunkel.  Digging on darker beers for the winter months, I decided to follow the road to München.  (Looks like the inspiration is more a Vienna, though; that may be the next up, then.)  Nearly entirely Munich malt, with just a pinch of dehusked Carafa for deeper colour.  A very light brush of neutral bittering hops, with Hallertauer to finish.  Not knowing my lager yeasts, Wyeast's Munich Lager strain seemed like an easy go-to for the style; building a proper starter took some time, but was well worth it to have a good pitch of yeast.

Brewday went smoothly, leaving my only other big worry being my ability to actually lager, which I did in my swamp cooler with water along with a bunch of ice and ice packs.  I was shocked when I realized I'd made it a full month keeping the beer at a fairly constant low- to mid-30s F with this method.  While it's not perfect--I could stand even more malt character--this could be the start of a long, positive relationship of lager in my homebrewery.

Primavera en Santiago - Munich Dunkel

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.059
Projected SRM: 13.8
Projected IBU: 25.4
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 87%

Grains
98.8% - 10 lb Weyermann Organic Munich
1.2% - 2 oz Carafa Special II

Hops
.3 oz Magnum (13.5%) (60 min)
2 oz Hallertauer (3.9%) (15 min)

Yeast

WY2308 Munich Lager - 4l, 3-stage starter on stirplate

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)

Water additions (mash)
3 gal distilled water
1 g Gypsum
1 g Salt

Brewday: 21 September 2013 
Mash: 152F for 60 minutes.
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 12P (1.048)

Fermented in swamp cooler at 50F.

24 September 2013: Definite smell of active fermentation.  No sulphur yet, just yeast churning away.  Give it two weeks, then pull from swamp cooler for diacetyl rest.

9 October 2013: Diacetyl rest at ambient (65-70F).

16 October 2013: Lagered with ice bath in swamp cooler for 4 weeks.
FG:1.016
ABV: 5.6%

Bottled: 21 November 2013
Warmed to room temperature for several days before bottling.
Bottled with 4.1 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.