The Vienna Roasts are Here!

 

Grouse Malt House is here to make sure you can make amazing gluten-free beer. So, as part of our ongoing commitment to expand our profile of delicious roasted malts, we began experimenting with and introducing to you our beautiful roasted Vienna Millet Malts. They are made in the same color ranges as our traditional Pale Millet roasts which are roasted to a medium, chocolate, and dark. The new Vienna roasts can be utilized in the same way as their Pale Millet counterparts but can add a new, flavorful, and exciting spin on your beers. Oh, and these Vienna Millet roasts make an excellent dark lager!  

Specifications: 

 SKU SRM Profile Inclusion 
MEDIUM ROASTED VIENNA MALT MI1200-11 30-65 Toffee, caramel, toast, honey, biscuit Up to 20%  
CHOCOLATE ROASTED VIENNA MALT MI1250-11 125-155 Chocolate, toffee, caramelized brown sugar, toasted cracker Up to 15%  
DARK ROASTED VIENNA MALT MI1300-11 300-350 Dark chocolate, nutty, roasted toffee, slight woody character Up to 5%  

 

The Dark Lager Recipe: Following in the steps of the last few blog posts we have designed a recipe that is a good representation of how you might utilize these new roasts in a style that is often forgotten. A Vienna Dark Lager is a combination of elements from a Vienna Lager and Czech Dark Lager.  

Stats: This recipe is intended to have an OG of 1.059 (14.5°P) and an FG of 1.015 (3.8°P, 5.9%ABV) if your attenuation is at about 75% *Stats are subject to the performance variables of the brewhouse, the choice of yeast and pitch rate, and beyond. Example grist total: 38lbs for 15 gallons.  

The Malt: 

Vienna Millet Malt 50% 
Pale Millet Malt 21% 
Caramel Buckwheat Malt 10% 
Medium Roasted Vienna Millet Malt 11% 
Chocolate Roasted Vienna Millet Malt 5% 
Dark Roasted Vienna Millet Malt 3% 

Estimated Color: 24 SRM 

The Hops: 

Crystal 60 minutes 13 
Tettnang 10 minutes 7.5 IBU 
Crystal 10 minutes 4 IBU 

 

The Yeast: In general, any lager yeast will work. In this example we used W-34/70

Recommended Mashing Regime: Rising Step Mash utilizing Ceremix and/or Ondea Pro: Hold at 125°F for twenty minutes, adding enzymes at mash in. Rise to 175° F and hold for 45 minutes then sparge as usual. For more details on mashing, we encourage you to check out our blog post about mashing and enzyme use here. 

Tasting Notes: This malt bill yields strong notes of chocolate and toffee backed up the malty flavors of the Vienna base malt. If the presence of Vienna is preferred, then the pale malt could be substituted completely for more Vienna. 

The Style: The focus of the recipe should be Vienna malt that imparts a smooth maltiness that is bready, rich, and balanced especially when utilizing higher percentages of roasted or specialty malt like in the recipe shown above. Hop bitterness should not be the focus and continental/noble hops are standard choice, although in this example we used a combination of American and noble hops.  

We hope this information helps brewers out there develop their own recipes. We look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on this recipe and what tips helped you the most to work with gluten-free grains. Happy Brewing! 

*Please note, that Grouse Malt House requires a minimum order quantity of 25 lbs for all specialty roasts.