Gordon Strong joins me for a discussion on German Lager beer styles and some tips for making the perfect lager.
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (47:30)
- This week I welcome Gordon Strong. Gordon Strong is the President of the Beer Judge Certification Program, its highest rated beer judge, and author of the books Modern Homebrew Recipes and Brewing Better Beer (Amazon affiliate links).
- We start with a short discussion of Gordon’s recent activities and trip to Brazil before the pandemic.
- We walk through some of the German beer styles including Pale Lagers, Malty German Lagers, Amber Lagers and Bocks.
- Gordon explains some of the common elements from each including flavor and ingredients.
- We then discuss some of the common elements in German lagers including the most common errors made when brewing them.
- Gordon explains why a two step German Lager mash is absolutely critical for getting the attenuation and body right in these styles.
- We talk about malty vs sweet malts and how you can improve your malt bill to get these styles right.
- We discuss the use of continental hops.
- Gordon describes the critical importance of proper fermentation and aging to hit these styles spot on.
- We close with his thoughts on how to brew the perfect German Lager.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to Gordon Strong for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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This is one of my favorite episode. I love brewing German lagers and I love the Gordon is like-minded with me, good tasting and drinkable beers. I hope he can taste some of my beers soon.
I’m wondering if any experiments have been done on ramping up gently and constantly through the rests vs adding boiling water to try to step up immediately to each step..whether it has an effect on the final wort composition..