I brewed a vienna lager a week and a half ago, checked the gravity tonight, and it’s close to 80% done. Question — I’ve dry hopped dozens of ales, but have yet to dry hop a lager. What’s your protocol? I was thinking of slowly bringing the temperature up from 50 degrees to 60 degrees over the course of the next few days. On Friday (maybe) I was planning on adding the dry hop, keeping it at 60 degrees for a few days with the dry hop, and then crashing before kegging. The sample I tasted was great, and did not have any hints of diacetyl.
Just curious why you would be dry-hopping a vienna lager at all. It really shouldn’t have a strong hop aroma/flavor as the malts should be the star of the show.
I say go for it. Why not? If you’re trying to nail the style specifically or enter a comp, then I wouldn’t. I say, why not create something that seems interesting to you. Ballast Point makes an IPL (India Pale Lager) that’s pretty awesome. It’s not a dry hopped Vienna lager, but still a style I never had which I found to be very good.
Yes it is a Boston Lager clone which is catigorized as a Vienna lager, yet has no Vienna malt in it! And yes, Sam Adams does dry hop their BL. I know it’s not “per the style” but to me, that’s the joy of brewing. I was just looking for tried techniques. Thought about keg hopping, but I know that can affect the clarity. I’ve also never keg hopped with a noble variety!
If you plan of doing a diacetyl rest then you could extend it few days to accomodate the dry hop stage as well. I would think a 5 day d-rest at 65 would not do any harm, and would give you the time to complete the dry-hopping.
Are you going to skip the lagering for this lager?
If you were going to do a lagering phase(recommended for at least 3 weeks by the way), then I would wait on the dry hopping until about 1 week before you are ready to serve. Otherwise you’re likely to lose any benefit.
I always thought of SA BL as a pale ale where they subbed noble hops (especially Tettanger) for American varieties, and used lager yeast. I never considered it as a Vienna.
Keg hopping has never had an effect on clarity for me.
Although I always say I’ve never gotten the famed “grassy” flavor from long keg hopping, I think it’s because I stick to American varieties. The issues I’ve seen with people leaving dry hops in the keg are usually associated with continental hops.
