The salt and lime lager- a beer style that I have recently fallen in love with. This is a style that is especially refreshing in the summertime, but it is also a delicious go-to all-season beer as well. If you’ve tried Stone’s Buenaveza, you likely know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, definitely do your best to get your hands on some, I assure you, you won’t be dissapointed.
My goal with this recipe was to somewhat recreate Stone’s delicious beer, with a small twist- use one of the recently popular Kveik yeasts! In this article, I will go through my salt and lime lager 1 gallon recipe!
Before we dive into the recipe, let’s talk about what makes this beer recipe different from a classic Mexican Lager.
What is a Pseudolager?
A pseudolager is a beer meant to emulate the crispness and cleanness of a lager without the long, cold-temperature fermentation process.
It is worth noting that as with my recent doppelbock, this beer was also a warm-fermented lager. Meaning that it was not fermented at standard lagering temperatures (45-55F), and instead fermented at room temperature of my house/apartment (about 65F). This method requires much less equipment, and I have had good results on several occasions using this method.
If you’re interested in learning more about the warm-fermented lager technique, click here! Some may call this a ‘pseudo-lager’, but I feel that as long as the quality of the end product is sound, that’s what matters most!
This method can also be useful in making a lager more quickly, which can be helpful if you want to have a beer ready quicker than using the standard lagering schedule (3-4 months)!
What is Kveik Yeast?
Kveik yeast is a Norwegian farmhouse yeast. Though it seems like brewing with Kveik has just recently become popular, use of this type of yeast in brewing dates back to ancient times.
What makes Kveik most unique is its resiliency. This yeast can ferment not only at your standard fermentation temperatures (65F-75F), but it can also work happily at temperatures near 110F! Fermentation also tends to proceed very quickly at these high temperatures, so if you’re trying to get a beer from grain to glass in the quickest manner possible, definitely look in Kveik’s direction!
Kveik yeast will also produce a good amount of fruity esters if fermented warm. This can be great for styles like your New England IPAs. However, it tends to ferment pretty clean at standard fermentation temperatures, which is what I preferred for this pseudolager.
For this brew, I used Loki from Imperial Yeast. It was the Kveik strain that was most available, and I’ve had nothing but good results from Imperial Yeast products.
How Do You Add Lime to Beer?
The best way to add lime flavor to beer is by adding fresh lime zest. I recommend steering away from adding lime juice as you can get acidic off flavors from this. When zesting the limes, do your best to avoid adding any pith as this can result in unintended bitterness.
I recommend adding the lime zest at flameout (end of boil). It could be added later on after active fermentation if you prefer. I would recommend sanitizing or making a tincture with vodka if you wanted to go this direction.
Another way to get lime notes in your beers is from the hop additions. Some of the New Zealand hops- Moteuka and Wakatu both tend to lend significant but pleasant lime notes to beer. Sorachi Ace is another hop that can lend fresh lime flavor as well, but less prominently in my opinion.
Salt and Lime Lager Recipe!
Stats:
Volume: 1 gallons (3.8L)
Predicted SRM 4.96
Predicted IBU 14.12
Original Gravity 1.066
Final Gravity 1.011
ABV- 7.22%
Grain:
24oz (680.4 grams) Pilsen Light (1.2L)
12oz (340.2 grams) Maris Otter
8oz (226.8 grams) Flaked Maize (Corn)
Hops:
0.1oz (2.83 grams) Liberty (60 minutes)
0.3oz (8.5 grams) Moteuka (Whirlpool)
Other Additions:
Irish Moss (10 minutes)
Lime Zest from one single small lime (Whirlpool)
0.5tsp (3 grams) Local Utah Salt (Whirlpool)
Water:
Reverse Osmosis Water
1/8 tsp (0.43 grams) CaCl
1/8 tsp (0.5 grams) Gypsum
1.5mL Lactic Acid
Mash pH 5.2
Strike water 163F (72.8C), mash started at 154F (67.8C)
2 gallon boil (7.6L)
Yeast:
Imperial Loki Kveik Yeast (1/4 packet)
Directions:
Heat 5 quarts of strike water to 163°F (72.8C). Add brewing salts. Mill the grains and mix with strike water to reach a mash temperature of 154°F (67.8C). Adjust pH to 5.2. Hold mash temperature for 60 minutes. Sparge the grains with 170°F (76.7C) water until you reach a volume of 2 gallons (7.6L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, following the hop schedule. Add Irish moss at 10 minutes. Add lime zest and salt during whirlpool.
After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 66°F (18.9C). Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68-70°F (20-21.1C) for 2 weeks, then cold crash the beer to 35°F (1.7C). Bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.25 volumes of CO2.
Tips:
Yeast Choice:
Although I used Kveik yeast to brew this pseudolager, this is in no way necessary. You can also use other lager yeasts that are tolerant of warm temperatures. Another room temperature-tolerant yeast that I have used with good success on multiple occasions is Saflager W-34/70.
If you have temperature control equipment for fermentation, you can certainly do a standard cold lager fermentation with this recipe for ultimate crispness!
Dry Hopping:
If you want even more citrusy aromas coming through in your finished product, dry hopping would be a great way to achieve this. I decided to stick with a strong whirlpool hop to avoid dry hopping with this recipe to mitigate clarity issues down the line, but if you want more aroma, dry hopping is the way to go!
Clarifying Agents:
As this particular beer was warm fermented, it does not have the natural clarity advantage that true lagering provides. Time alone can do wonders for the clarity of a beer, but if you are looking for other agents- gelatin and Biofine Clear work well. However, keep in mind that if you are brewing a beer for any vegan or vegetarian consumers, gelatin will not fit the bill. Biofine Clear on the other hand is colloidal silicon dioxide and is vegan friendly.
With this particular beer, I used Biofine Clear first after cold crashing for 24 hours, and then two days later used gelatin with great results!
I did brew this beer while temporarily living in an apartment. If you’re interested in learning more about overcoming challenges of brewing in an apartment, click here.
I recorded this brew day in the apartment on Instagram, if you’re a more visual learner, find mr.smallbatchbrewer on Instagram, and check out my saved story!
Thank you for stopping by!
If you are interested in how to homebrew using the brew-in-a-bag BIAB method, please see my post here.
If you would like to see more small batch recipes like this, please follow this link.