Recipe and head note excerpted from Lager: The Definitive Guide to Tasting and Brewing the World’s Most Popular Beer Styles by Dave Carpenter (2017, Voyageur Press). Reprinted with permission from the author, who is a wealth of lager knowledge and key player on the Brewers Association / American Homebrewers Association team that produces and publishes Zymurgy. His book is wonderful, and I suggest it to anyone looking to really geek out on lager styles, brewing, and fermentation — plus it includes 20 recipes!
Watch a side-by-side tasting with Don Osborn’s
Generic Green Bottle homebrew vs Carlsberg Danish Lager
Generic Green Bottle
This recipe is for a classic generic European “premium” pale lager that comes in a green bottle. It’s not a clone of Stella Artois, Heineken, Grolsch, Kronenburg 1664, Beck’s, Amstel, Carlsberg, or any of the other countless international pale lagers out there. But it’s definitely inspired by them, minus the potential light-struck “skunky” character that can come from travel in a green bottle.
For extra authenticity, serve this beer with skinny jeans, a cigarette, good public transit, and relaxed social mores.
Vital Stats
Batch size: 5 gallons (18.9 liters)
Boil time: 90 minutes
Original extract: 12.1°P (1.049 SG)
Apparent extract: 2.6°P (1.010 SG)
Alcohol: 5.1% by volume
Bitterness: 22 IBU
Color: 4 SRM
Malts
- 9 lb. Weyermann Pilsner malt
- 4.0 oz. Weyermann CaraHell malt
Hops
- 0.25 oz. Magnum [14% A.A.] at 60 min
- 0.5 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh [4% A.A.] at 15 min
- 1 oz. Saaz [3.75% A.A.] at 5 min
Yeast
- Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager
Mash Schedule
- 147°F (64°C) for 30 min
- 162°F (72°C) for 30 min
- 170°F (77°C) for 5 min
Brewing Notes
Mash according to the indicated schedule and collect enough wort to yield 5 gallons (19 liters) after a vigorous 90-minute boil, about 6.5 gallons (24.6 liters). Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops per the schedule above.
Chill wort, pitch yeast at 48°F (9°C), and ferment according to the Narziß schedule if possible (see below). Lager for 4 weeks before packaging.
Narziß Lager Fermentation Schedule
Cold ferment (46-50°F or 8-10°C) until specific gravity of the beer falls about half way from the measured original gravity to the expected final gravity.
Then, the temperature is raised to 54°F (12°C) and held until the beer reaches terminal gravity, after which time it is gradually cooled by about 2°F (1°C) per day to a lagering temperature near 32°F (0°C) and conditioned for several weeks or months.
The eponymous lager phase is the long, cold period during which lager beer matures, mellows, and smooths out around the edges. An important aspect of the process is that it takes place on the yeast. This is crucial, as lager yeast continues to remain active even at temperatures near freezing.