The remaining percentage of the grain bill will be pilsner malt.
*** Waiting for results ***
The international lager style family represents a wide-range of popular commercial beers.
A summary of vital statistics:
| 02A Pale | 02B Amber | 02C Dark | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBU | 18 - 25 | 8 - 25 | 8 - 20 |
| SRM | 2 - 6 | 6 - 14 | 14 - 30 |
| OG | 1.042 - 1.050 | 1.042 - 1.055 | 1.044 - 1.056 |
Pilsner is the most common base malt. A significant percentage of the grist (20 to 25%) may be corn or rice, but all-malt versions are also possible. Crystal-type malts are typically around 5% of the grain bill, with lighter (carapils, crystal 10L) malts used for the pale version. Toasted malts like Munich are often about 5%. Dark roasted malts are about 1 to 2% for coloring in amber lagers and 3 to 5% for the dark lagers. It is important to avoid roasted flavors. Carafa I, II, or III is a debittered black malt that can provide a dark color with little roasted quality.
The default values produce a pale lager. Add small percentages of the darker specialty malts to make an amber or dark version. Use the SRM output to estimate the color to match desired style.
The hops are usually noble European varieties like Saaz, Hallerau, and Tettnanger. Magnum is sometimes used as a bittering hop and then paired with late hop additions of Saaz, Hallertau, or Tettnanger. American hops bred from European varieties, such as Mount Hood, are acceptable.
Clean lager strains like W-34/70 are the most common yeast.
Gordon Strong views Mexican lagers as being a subset of the international pale lager style. Mexican lagers are slightly darker, include corn, and minimize malty character.
Beer-analytics.com International pale lager analysis
Beer-analytics.com International amber lager analysis
Beer-analytics.com International dark lager analysis
BJCP 02 International lager styles
Colby, C. (2005, July-August). International lagers: Go full-throttle green bottle. BYO, 38-43.
Strong, G. (2017, March-April). International amber lager: A new style to fill a gap in the style space. BYO, 28-32.
Strong, G. (2017, December). Mexican lager: An example of international pale lager. BYO, 28-32.
Weikert, J. (2017, January-February). Brewing south of the border cerveza. BYO, 66-72.
Go back to the recipe list.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows sharing, adapting, and remixing.