Legend Brewing (rotating) Recipe

Mill and heat strike water

Crack or mill the grains if not pre-crushed. Heat 3.0 qt of strike water to 165°F (74°C) to achieve a mash temperature of ~152°F (67°C) when grains are added (adjust for your system losses).

Mash In

Add the crushed Pilsner, Vienna, Munich, Crystal 40L and flaked oats to your mash tun. Pour the strike water and stir thoroughly to eliminate dry pockets. Target mash temperature: 150–154°F (65–68°C); aim for 152°F (67°C). Hold for 60 minutes, gently stirring after 20 minutes to ensure even conversion.

Mash Out

Raise mash temperature to 168–170°F (76–77°C) for 10 minutes (mash out) to stop enzymatic activity and improve wort run-off. If you don’t mash out, proceed directly to drain.

Recirculate first runnings until they run clear (vorlauf). Drain the mash tun into your brew kettle, then sparge with 3.0 qt of water heated to 170°F (77°C). Collect enough wort to finish with approximately 5.5–6.5 gallons pre-boil depending on your boil-off rate and target batch size (recipe scaled for ~5 gallon batch).

Bring to Boil

Bring the collected wort to a vigorous boil. Watch for boil-overs, especially in the first 10 minutes.

60-minute additions

At the start of the 60-minute boil, add 0.5 oz Hallertauer bittering hops. Boil for 60 minutes total.

10-minute additions

With 10 minutes left in the boil, add 0.75 oz Saaz and 1 tsp Irish moss or Whirlfloc if using. This addition provides delicate noble hop flavor and helps clarity.

Flameout / Aroma

At flameout, turn off the heat and let the wort sit for 5 minutes. Optionally add a small whirlpool addition (use the same Saaz if you prefer more aroma) and then chill wort quickly.

Chill and transfer

Chill the wort rapidly to 50°F (10°C) using an immersion chiller or equivalent. Transfer to a sanitized fermenter, leaving the trub behind. Top up with sanitary water if necessary to reach a 5 gallon batch volume. Aerate the wort thoroughly by shaking, splashing, or using pure oxygen to get good dissolved oxygen for the lager yeast.

Pitch yeast

If using liquid lager yeast, make a yeast starter to ensure healthy fermentation. Pitch yeast when wort is 48–52°F (9–11°C). Seal fermenter and attach an airlock.

Primary fermentation

Ferment at 48–52°F (9–11°C) for about 10–14 days or until gravity is stable for 2–3 days. Expect a fairly clean, slow fermentation profile typical of lager strains.

Diacetyl rest

Raise temperature to 62–64°F (17–18°C) for 48 hours to allow the yeast to clean up diacetyl and finish fermentation.

Lagering

After the diacetyl rest, gradually cool the beer down to 34–36°F (1–2°C) over 2–3 days and lager (cold condition) for 4–6 weeks to develop clarity and a smooth profile. If short on time, 2–3 weeks at near-freezing will still improve the beer.

During the last 5–7 days of lagering (or at the end of primary if you prefer a warmer dry hop), add 0.5 oz Saaz directly to the fermenter as a gentle dry hop. Keep contact time short (5–7 days) to avoid vegetal flavors.

Prepare for bottling or kegging

If kegging, transfer beer to a keg, purge with CO2, and carbonate to approx. 2.3–2.6 volumes CO2. If bottling, dissolve 3.0 oz priming sugar in 8 oz boiling water, cool, and gently mix into the beer. Bottle into sanitized bottles and cap.

Conditioning

If bottled, condition at room temperature for 2 weeks, then cold-condition for 1–2 weeks before drinking. If kegged, allow a week for flavors to settle after carbonation.

Water adjustments are optional; small additions of gypsum and calcium chloride are suggested to accentuate malt backbone and hop expression for a soft, balanced noble-hop lager. Use a Campden tablet to remove chlorine/chloramine from municipal water prior to mashing if needed. Adjust hop varieties to match the rotating Legend Brewing selection if their rotation uses different noble hop strains.