Author: Jason Cipriani

I’ve been brewing for over 4 years now, started off making 5 gallon extract batches on the kitchen stove, a process that took around 3 hours start to finish, before eventually converting to all grain and accepting my brew days would take doubly as long. At times, this feels like a burden, an admittedly self-serving activity that cuts into time otherwise spent on family or work. While the break and cadence of a brew day is usually relaxing, the thought of being able to pump out a tasty beer in half the normal time is very enticing.

Prior to my introduction to the delicious world of craft beer, my go-to swill of choice came in a shiny silver can with mountains that weren’t yet able to tell me whether the liquid inside was cold enough for consumption. Super pale, super fizzy, and super cheap, the Light/Lite beers of Budweiser, Miller, and Coors held permanent residence in my refrigerator. Eventually, right around when I started homebrewing, I adopted the common perspective that such beers weren’t worth my time because of their generally boring character and the fact they’re produced by Satan. However, my opinions on such styles are shifting, not so much about those produced by huge conglomerate breweries, but rather I’ve come to appreciate the style for what it is intended to be– light, crisp, simple, and supremely crushable.

For the first official Short & Shoddy brew, I tackled an American Light Lager, a style believed by many to require the deftest touch and precise methodology. The BJCP Style Guidelines describes American Light Lager as being a “highly carbonated, very light-bodied, nearly flavorless lager designed to be consumed very cold,” all of which would make hiding any flaws very difficult.

| BREWING THE BEER |

With what we know about Big Beer using rice and/or corn to guarantee a crisp and deliciously flavorless light lager, my recipe included a good portion of both as well as just a single hop addition.

Short & Shoddy American Light Lager

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 20 min 9.8 IBUs 3.0 SRM 1.034 1.005 3.7 % Actuals 1.034 1.006 3.7 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 7 lbs 70 Rice, Flaked 2 lbs 20 Maize, Flaked (Thomas Fawcett) 1 lbs 10 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Hersbrucker 57 g 20 min First Wort Pellet 2.1 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature American Lager Yeast (WLP840) White Labs 78% 50°F - 55°F Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

Knowing I had a short window of time on a Sunday morning to brew, I collected my full volume of brewing liquor the night before, dosing it with Campden to clear up any chloramine present in my local water– we’re going for shoddy here, not shitty.

At 9:00 AM the next day, I began heating the full volume of water to the strike temperature given by BeerSmith then measured out and milled the grains directly into a BIAB bag.

It took 21 minutes for the water to reach strike temperature, at which point I dropped the bag of grains into the water, stirred to ensure no dough balls, then checked the mash temperature. I slightly overshot my target of 148°F/64°C, but not by enough for me to care, plus it dropped after a few minutes anyway.

I usually let the mash rest for 10 minutes before recirculating to let the grain bed settle, but I skipped this step on this occasion and immediately turned the pump on. Halfway through the 20 minute mash step, I took pH reading that revealed I was a bit higher than ideal, no surprise since I neglected adjusting my water profile.

When the mash timer went off, the sweet wort was pumped from my MLT into a keggle, which already held the single hop addition, then I lit the flame on my burner and brought the wort up to a boil.

Once the 20 minute boil was complete, the wort was run through my plate chiller.

I transferred 5.5 gallons/21 liters of wort to a sanitized Brew Bucket, which I connected to my chilling unit set to my target fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°C, quite a bit higher than one might expect for the style.

I stole 600 mL of wort from the fermentor for a vitality starter, pitching a vial of WLP840 American Lager yeast before placing the flask on a stir plate where it would remain for 4 hours.

Finally, I took a hydrometer measurement that showed the wort was at 1.034 OG for an efficiency of 53%, slightly lower than I expected, but still solidly within range for the style

It was 10:45 AM at this point, just under two hours after I began. Even including the 20 or so minutes I spent cleaning up, this was easily the quickest brew day of my life.

I returned 4 hours later to pitch the vitality starter and noticed the wort had stabilized at my way-too-warm-for-lager fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°C. Returning the following morning, I noticed steady airlock activity indicating fermentation had kicked off. At 5 days post-pitch, I took a preliminary hydrometer measurement that matched another measurement taken 2 days later, indicating FG was reached.

The beer was then cold crashed and fined it with gelatin before being kegged. I placed the filled keg in my keezer where it was burst carbonated at 50 psi for 18 hours, after which I reduced the CO2 to 13 psi for serving. I began serving my American Light Lager after 4 days of conditioning, just 14 days after it was brewed.

| METHOD |

Participants, all blind to the brewing methods used, were served samples of the beer in standard clear taster glasses then asked to focus on its appearance, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel. Each participant completed a brief survey in a relatively quiet setting after being instructed not to interact with others while evaluating the beer.

| RESULTS |

A total of 13 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were first asked to write-in the style they believed the beer to be based on their perception.

Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely;” these ratings were then averaged.

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being strongest in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. Out of the 13 participants, 8 felt the beer possessed no off-flavors. Of the 5 who did perceive off-flavors, 3 detected astringency, 1 picked up acetaldehyde, and 1 noted diacetyl in the beer.

Tasters were then asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated they hated it and 5 indicated they loved it.

Finally, the beer style was revealed to participants and they were asked to rate how representative it was on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “extremely.”

My Impressions: After pulling my first clear, carbonated sample of this beer, I was briefly transported back to my college days when I used to live off of light lager. The hop presence was minimal, as expected, the malt was very subtle, as expected, and other than a slight bite from the high carbonation, there was little in the way of mouthfeel… as expected. Similar to some commonly available commercial light lagers, I did pick up a touch of apple in the aroma, totally inoffensive. This was one of the most flavorful flavorless beers I’ve had in some time, I definitely had no issue knocking back a few pints per sitting!

| CONCLUSION |

Whether out of fear of producing bad beer or just classic appeal to authority, I’ve stuck to a fairly conservative brewing process involving methods that both require a decent investment in time and don’t venture too far outside of convention. When brewing a style like American Light Lager, that would typically mean a 6-7 hour brew day followed by an extended cool fermentation that would then be followed by a lagering period, ultimately requiring 6 or more weeks to go from grain to glass. In my mind, all of these steps were a requirement, which may explain why I was so skeptical about the outcome of this Short & Shoddy batch.

American Light Lager is a style known for basically being beer flavored water, so clean that any flaws in the brewing process would be glaringly obvious. The reduced mash time wasn’t terribly concerning to me, and while it did result in predictably poor efficiency, that was easy enough to adjust for. However, I fully expected the beer to be chock full of DMS due to the 20 minute boil, though not a single taster reported perceiving this oft-cited off-flavor. Similarly, the fact the beer was fermented with a traditional lager yeast strain at an ale temperature would lead many to presume it’d be a fruity bomb, yet only 4 tasters endorsed esters as being the most prominent fermentation characteristic.

This experience was nothing short of shocking for me. I tend to be a bit more critical of the quality of my beers than others, but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed this American Light Lager and would have no hesitation serving it to friends and family, especially those who aren’t on the craft beer wagon just yet. It may not be a perfect example of the style, but damn if it doesn’t hit the spot when sitting around and having a good time with friends!

A short story to finish. After I’d finished collecting data, I served this beer to a relative who dabbles in homebrewing. His brew days are long, excruciating sessions where he does everything “the way it’s supposed to be done.” Without knowing the style, he ribbed me a bit for “brewing a Bud Light.” I smiled and agreed it wasn’t a beer I typically brew. Then, on his second pint, I broke the news that the beer had been brewed in under 2 hours and that I broke a lot of rules in the process. After a brief pause, he commented, “Now that you mention it…” We had a good laugh and I left the growler for him to finish, which he was happy to do.

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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