https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/302575/mexi any thoughts? Still a bit stumped on how much vienna to go with. Using 34/70 because I have it on hand and plan to ferment in the 60s. A bit of sugar to help with attenuation.
Looks like an American lager, but it should be pretty good. I really like 34/70 for New World lagers. Usually International Lagers (which a Mexican lager falls into) don't have as much adjuncts as American Lagers, but I think it will make a fine beer. You could just drop the sugar and bring up the malt or rice to keep the same OG.
Not that I’m aware of, but I could be wrong. International lagers as a whole don’t have as many adjuncts as American lagers, some are all grain. Your recipe is @ 30% adjuncts. That’s on the high end of even American lagers. Either way, it should be a good beer.
Ha! Thanks! Yeah I’m at 45 minute mash and boil these days. Other than having to use more bittering hops I don’t notice any difference.
34/70 is great! - It shouldn't need much help with attenuation - I usually get 75-85% out of it. I think the recipe looks great (minus the sugar) - corn is a bit higher than what I've used but you should get a good bit of tortilla chip taste out of that which I love in a "Mexican lager" - which, with the corn addition, I find to be a very American craft beer thing. - Most true Mexican Lagers are based on Vienna Lagers. (This excludes beers like Corona etc. that are more like Budweiser) My recommendations: Drop the sugar. With that much corn and pils you shouldn't need it - add 8oz more Vienna instead. I love vienna and would personally do a 50/50 split with the pils or swap them around and have more vienna presence. - That's me though. Let me know what 30% corn gets you flavor-wise I use something in the 13-15% range but would consider bumping it up if I'd get more tortilla chip flavor
I know a little bit about this. The mexican beers based on vienna lagers are the dark mexican lagers like modelo negra. The main difference is they use corn and adjuncts instead of being all malt like classic examples. I am not trying to brew a dark mexican lager... I normally get about 78-79% attenuation with 34/70. I will be keeping the sugar. I may go 50/50 with the pils and vienna.
With that much adjunct and a 1.8 qt / lb. Ratio, I'd increase the mash time or at minimum, check for starch conversion. Other than that, it should work out and be a nice easy drinker. Cheers
For my adjunct beers I use up to 20% Vienna and 20% corn - always comes out very rich but crisp. I think that the cane sugar is just redundant unless you're not confident of your mash efficiency.
I mash longer and stir a few times. I almost always get high 80s or even low 90s for efficiency. You could always just add sugar in the fermenter if you missed your numbers by enough to be concerned about.
For a beer like this I should get efficiency around 80%. I like sugar additions to help with attenuation in a beer like this . For adjunct laden beers I’m not afraid to use sugar though it must be some kind of faux pau to most people. I’ve made some small tweaks and am close to the final recipe I think.
The thing is that it's just redundant and unnecessary Your adjunct is providing pretty much straight up sugar already and dextrose is very fermentable. The small amount of table sugar compared to the huge percentage of dextrose isn't going to have any effect on attenuation. There's just no reason to add it.
The resulting sugars are essentially 100 percent fermentable...it's subject to your mash efficiency. If your mash efficiency was 80 percent, then a pound of corn should yield the same points as .8 lb of sugar. The thing that can mess with the numbers is diastatic power in your grist. If you don't have enough enzyme to convert the starch, you don't the efficiency so you miss out on some of the fermentables.
