Wien Zerschlagen (Batch 323)

I brewed my 7th lager of the year last Sunday.

My 19th batch of beer this year (20th if you count the double bath of McShepardSons Irish Ale as two batches).

Officially, it was the 323rd batch of beer I brewed since I started way back in 2009.

If you've been following along on this blog for the last year or so ... you might have noticed my infatuation with the Vienna Malt from Root Shoot Malting.

Root Shoot is a Colorado malting company, so I've tried to use it quite a bit for the various Colorado Strong beers I've brewed.

The Root Shoot Vienna Malt is darker in color and (in my humble opinion) more rich in flavor than other Vienna Malts.

I feel like it is pretty unique and I use it quite a bit in beers whenever I get my malts from the Brew Hut.

Colorado Vienna Lager vs Upslope Mexican Dark Lager

Remember in Colorado Vienna Lager vs Modelo Negra, I compared my Colorado Vienna Lager to both Modelo Negra and to  Prost Munich Dunkel.

While the styles have similar characteristics, these are not really Vienna Lagers.

I mentioned that I had cans of Upslope's Mexican Dark Lager in my fridge that I also should have compared (see U is for Upslope Brewing Company).

I typed "Maybe I'll do that side-by-side sometime soon."

Last Sunday, I did my side-by-side.

Upslope's Mexican Dark Lager still isn't a Vienna Lager. Honestly, it is closer to Modelo Negra than either of the other beers. But still, it was fun to compare.

Colorado Vienna Lager vs Modelo Negra

So ... I've been drinking Colorado Vienna Lager.

I think I've already had more of Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310) than I ever had of Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306) before the Disappearing Beer tragedy occurred.

At some point, I thought it would be fun to compare my Colorado Vienna Lager with commercial Vienna Lagers.

Unfortunately, it isn't real easy to find Vienna Lagers to buy. I remember hearing that Modelo Negra was considered a Vienna Lager, but when I looked it up on Untappd, it is listed as a Munich Dunkel.

I looked around at my favorite beer store, and I didn't see anything labeled Vienna Lager.

So I picked up Modelo Negra. Just for fun, I also picked up a six pack of Prost Munich Dunkel cans.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 310)

Remember that in my post "Disappearing Beer" I shared that I didn't get to drink most of my first batch of Colorado Vienna Lager?

Heck ... I didn't even get to check it in on Untappd! (Yes, I check in most of my homebrewed beers on Untappd).

I've been wanting to brew Colorado Vienna Lager again so I could enjoy more of the beer.

Friday, I got the Root Shoot malts at my favorite homebrew shop, so that I could brew it on the weekend.

On Saturday, I prepared my water and set the timer to heat up while I was sleeping. I got up early Sunday to brew ...

 Colorado Vienna Lager

Disappearing Beer

I discovered something sad on Sunday afternoon. 

I was intending to write a blog post about my two recent "Colorado" beers. Both Colorado Strong IPA and Colorado Vienna Lager feature a malt bill completely composed of malts from local Root Shoot Malting.

On Friday, I noted that Colorado Vienna Lager was

 "pretty much perfect now. Carbonation and clarity right where I want them. Yummy flavor. Beautiful color."

In other words ... this beer was ready to start drinking more than just samples. Drinking "for reals".

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306)

I brewed a Vienna lager yesterday.

It is only my third batch of beer this year, but it was my 306th of my brewing "career".

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I've been using Root Shoot malts quite a bit lately.

One of my favorite homebrew shops has been featuring their malts, and I have really like the character that I get from the ones I've used so far.

Much like the Colorado Strong IPA (Batch 305), I designed the recipe with all Colorado malts. As I mentioned I really like the Vienna malt from Root Shoot, and this beer used it as its base.

I called the recipe:

Colorado Vienna Lager

Colorado Strong IPA (Batch 305)

So far this year, I'm brewing less than last year.

It is early, so it doesn't really mean anything yet, but I expect I'll be back to closer to pre-covid levels of brewing this year.

We'll see.

This past weekend, I did brew my 2nd batch of the year. It was my 305th batch in my brewing "career". If I'm counting correctly, it is the 31st time I've brewed on the Anvil Foundry all-in-one system.

The recipe I brewed was my take on the "Colorado Strong IPA".

In 2020, I was able to give a donation to the Colorado Strong Fund.to get the official recipe for the Colorado Strong Pale Ale. 

The 2021 Version of Colorado Strong doesn't appear to be hyped as much, and as far as I can tell, there isn't really an official recipe.

That's fine. I just created my own ...

Colorado Strong IPA

Decemberfest Lager (Batch 303) and Pork Butt

I brewed my 303rd batch of beer this past weekend.

It was my 27th batch of beer in 2021, and my 29th brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

It might be my last batch of the year.

Or ... it might not. We'll have to see.

Regardless, this will be my 2nd most volume of beer brewed, behind only the ridiculous amount of beer I brewed in 2020.

I feel like I say this a lot ... but it blows my mind that 2021 is already almost over. I don't feel like I'm ready for a new year yet.

Anyway ... the recipe I brewed this past Sunday was ...

Decemberfest Lager

This is the 2nd time brewing this recipe, although this time I substituted the Vienna malt with some from local maltster Colorado's Root Shoot Malting.

The Root Shoot Vienna malt lists its color as 6 Lovibond vs the 3.5 Lovibond Vienna malt I usually use, so this batch is likely to be a couple of shades darker than last year's version.