There's a little story behind the name 1519 Barker, which I shared both on the recipe page "1519 Barker Exportbier", and on the brew day blog post 1519 Barker Exportbier (Batch 361)
My intention of brewing 1519 Barker was to capture the essence of how I remember my favorite beer in college.
Honestly, I didn't know anything about beer styles in college. To me, there were basically 3 styles. There was shitty cheap beer (eg Old Milwaukee Light), ok cheap beer (eg Natty Light), and “premium” Michelob.
And, if I'm honest, the reason I thought Michelob was superior was because my older friends told me so.
Michelob was what they got when they wanted to treat themselves… so I did too.
It has been years since I've had “original “ Michelob. In fact, I do not think it exists anymore. The internet says you can find it. But I certainly don't see it anywhere I go to purchase beer.
I see a ton of the absolutely awful Michelob Ultra. But that certainly isn't anywhere close.
So, when I went to design a tribute recipe reminding me of Michelob, it was really a shot in the dark.
- I knew it was a lager
- I was fairly sure it was a all-malt, and had a little more hop flavor than your typical American light lager. But, I didn't remember it being bitter at all.
- I had an impression in my brain that it was crisp and clean with German lager influences.
- I assumed it was a little higher in alcohol than natty light, but not by a lot.
Stylistically, my head went to Dortmunder, or as the BJCP now calls it “German Helles Exportbier“.
A golden German lager balancing a smooth malty profile with a bitter, hoppy character in a slightly above-average body and strength beer.
And … I came up with 1519 Barker Exportbier.
After I brewed the recipe, I came across this article from More Beer: How to Brew a Reconstruction of the Original Michelob Beer.
The author, Jack Horzempa, is speculating similarly to me, but he has much more extensive historical research backing up his recipe than my uneducated memory of drinking with college friends.
He says that the original Michelob was heavily influenced by and intended to be a Czech Pilsner, which upon retrospect, seems reasonable.
His malt bill is 100% pilsner malt, making a lighter colored and lighter malt flavored beer.
He thinks that Saaz hops were featured whereas I picked Tettnang. Close enough in my opinion. But, his target IBU is 40 + … way off my ridiculously low IBU. And he uses about twice as much finishing hops as I did.
I don't remember Michelob being very hoppy, but I don't even think I really knew what hops were back in college, so I'll Take his word for it.
Jack's water profile is a little more minerally than mine too.
And he specifically went with a Pilsen Lager Yeast, whereas I just used my standard 34-70 German Lager Yeast.
- Target OG: 1.050
- Target FG: 1.010
- ABV: 5.25%
- IBUs: 40+
- SRM: 3
Our target OG, FG, and ABV is close, but at least according to Jack, my beer recipe isn't really anywhere close to “Original Michelob “
That's fine. I wasn't really making a clone. I'm happy with the beer I made, and I'll make it again. Soon, I think.
When I rebrew the recipe, I'll add more bitterness, but not as much as in Jack's recipe. I think I'll also get a little closer to his water profile.
Other than that, I’ll leave my 1519 Barker Exportbier recipe as is.
But at some point, I also want to try something closer to Jack's recipe. It would be great if I could have both on tap at the same time, but we'll see how that goes.
I just have so many styles I want to brew. So much beer to brew, so little time.
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Go Bradley Braves!
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