Hi:
I am an extract brewer and I’d like to make a Carlsberg/Tuborg-style Danish lager. I have not found much in the way of clone recipes on line, so I intend to make a German-style pils but use the Wyeast Danish strain #2042 instead of a German yeast. Would be interested in anyone’s feedback on the following recipe:
6 lbs. Pilsner LME
6 oz. Carapils (steeping grains)
1.5 oz. German Hallertau pellets (60 min.)
1.0 oz. German Hallertau pellets (10 min.)
0.5 oz. German Hallertau pellets (0 min.)
Wyeast 2042
Let me know what you think, especially regarding specialty grains and the hop choice/amounts. I have made several pilsners from kits (including the NB Czech and Continental pils kits), but this would be my first attempt at pilsner recipe design. Thanks!
-BrewRaider
I have a recipe somewhere that I can look up for you later, but in the meantime or in case I forget, check this out:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/ ... ic=14465.0
Found it! For your Danish version, just change the yeast to 2042. See here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=114017&p=1005496&hilit=american+lager#p1005496
So in your case, to adapt my recipe to yours, I would:
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Trade in the Carapils for some 6-row instead. 2-row would also work.
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If you like you could use extra malt instead of the rice syrup I have specified in my recipe.
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Your hop schedule looks fine although I do think any hop additions other than for bittering are kind of a waste for this beer style. Trust me, you’ll get a little hop flavor just from the bittering addition.
Welcome to the forum!
As best I can tell, international lagers like Carlsburg, Tuborg, Heineken or any of a host of others are just pilsner malt, hop bitterning extract and water. Maybe some use actual hops, and the yeast variety varies, but the main differences between them are probably the yeast, the company that makes the malt, the water used and the process variables. You don’t have the ability to match what they are doing for any of those, except the yeast. Which means the subtle differences are out of your control. But you can still make something that is close. If you are trying to do this with extract, I’d do the following:
Make 2 liter yeast starter 1-2 days before brew day.
Recipe
1 lb pilsner malt steeped in 1/2 gallon of water at 150F for an hour, then rinsed with 1/2 gallon more water. Add water to pot to get 3 gallons.
5 lbs pilsner LME (or 4 lbs pilsner DME), half added before boil, other half added with 15 min before flame out.
8 oz rice syrup, or 7 oz table sugar, added with the second half of the extract 15 min before flame out
1.25 oz Hallertau pellets (60 min.)
Chill, top up to 5 gallons. Decant clear liquid off top of starter, then pitch yeast at 50F. Hold at 50F for the bulk of fermentation (about a week to 10 days), then warm to 60F for a few days to ensure high attenuation. Cold crash after reaching FG.
The pilsner malt is there to give some fresh malt flavor to the beer, and it is actually a minimash. But as long as you keep the grain to water ratio about right, that is no different then steeping. The rice syrup or sugar are in there to dry out the beer some. Extract won’t ferment as dry as you want it to, and the sugar will make up for that.
Let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out.
Thanks for the feedback, guys! Based on your advice, I will be making some adjustments to my recipe as follows:
4 lbs. Pilsen DME (2 lbs. at 60 min. and 2 lbs. at 15 min.)
1 lbs. of Pilsen base malt - partial mashed
5 oz. dextrose corn sugar (15 min.)
2.0 oz. Hallertau (German) pellets - 60 min.
1.0 oz. Hallertau (German) pellets - 10 min.
Wyeast 2042 (Danish Lager) yeast (will make a starter)
OG should be about 1.042 with IBUs of 20.5 (probably a bit heavier and hoppier than actual Carlsberg, but that’s certainly okay).
I normally enjoy Czech and German pils myself, but I promised my Danish mother-in-law I’d make her a Danish-style lager this winter. I’ll let you know how it goes!
That looks pretty good. Hope it turns out nicely for you!
:cheers:
