Designing and Testing a Clone-Brew
Boag's Premium
by
Arnie Wierenga
I love a great lager.
When my interest in homebrewing was revived a couple of years ago, I noticed that the Brewcraft homebrew shops have a recipe they call a Boag's Premium. Being an ex-pat Tasmanian, I naturally had to try it out. It is based on a Black Rock Lager kit and the Brewcraft German beer modifier. I have made several of these batches and a fine and tasty beer has resulted, but it is not really like the original. It lacks the crispy hop flavour and clean lager characteristics of the real thing. Later on in this article I will suggest improvements to the Brewcraft recipe for the kit brewers who may be interested. But my own evolutionary path has followed the track of all-grain brewing.
As my brewing skills improved, I began in earnest a 'work in progress', inspired by Boag's Premium. I decided to test my skills and see how close I could get to the original with the control and flexibility of all-grain brewing. It has been a good way to learn the craft as well.
Take a look at this information and please make any comments
or ask any questions.
History of Boags Brewery
| Style Basics Premium Australian Lager |
|
|---|---|
| Original Gravity: |
1.035 - 1.050 |
| Bitterness IBU: |
8 - 22 |
| Alcohol by Volume: | 3.5 - 5.1 % |
| Appearance: Straw to pale gold. Bright, with a reasonable head. Darker than common Australian lagers, due to the use of less adjuncts. |
|
| Aroma: A mild, malt aroma, which may be supported by low to moderate, and even possibly noble, hop notes. Estery fruitiness, diacetyl, and phenolic or yeasty notes should be absent. |
|
| Flavour: A low to moderate mild malt flavour may be supported by low to moderate hop flavours. Bitterness can range from low-medium (lagers) to high-medium (pilsners), resulting in a neutral to slightly bitter malt/ bitterness balance. Medium to medium-high carbonation. Crisp and dry. Any fruity flavours, phenolics, yeasty flavours, diacetyl, astringency or harshness, should be penalized. |
|
| Body: Light to light-medium. |
|
| Overall impression: A clean, crisp lager, designed basically for quaffing, but containing more interest and more malt and hop character than the typical Australian session lagers. |
|
| Commercial Examples: Boags Premium Malt Shovel pilsner |
|
| Recipe - Version 2 |
|---|
| Volume: 23 litres
O.G.: 1.048 F.G.: 1.010 Alc %: 5.0 I.B.U.: 23 E.B.C.: 6.7 Ingredients: 4.75kg Lager Malt (Franklin 2-row) 0.15kg Wheat Malt 0.05kg Crystal (light 70 EBC) Hops (pellets) 14g Pride of Ringwood 9.7% for 60 min 39g Tasmanian Hersbrucker 3.5% for 10 min 25g Tasmanian Hersbrucker 3.4 % - Dry Hop Extras 10g Irish Moss 15 min (boil) 35g Isinglass Finings ( 21 Days secondary) WYeast 2042 Danish Lager Boil Time: 60 minutes Mashing Procedure: Saccharification 66c/120 mins Mash-out 76c/10 mins Sparge 78c/45 mins Fermentation: Primary 14 Days/11 C Diacetyl Rest 5 Days/15 C Secondary 37 Days/2 C Desired Carbonation Level: 2.40 Volumes CO2 Priming with Corn Sugar: 63 g for 20 litres at 2 C |
| An Improved Kit Recipe |
| For 23 litres 1 Black Rock Lager Kit Brewcraft #60 German Lager Kit converter 500g of light dry malt extract 25g of Hersbrucker/Hallertau hops added to the secondary Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager (if you can brew cold as above) or Wyeast 2112 California Lager Yeast (for brewing from 14-20C) This beer will turn out darker than the original due to the processing of the malt extracts. It should still be quite a nice drop though! |
In 1881 Charles Button, after managing the Launceston Brewery for six years, joined Edward Ditcham to build the Esk Brewery on the corner of William Street and The Esplanade in Launceston, Tasmania. This was subsequently sold to James Boag and his son, James Boag Jnr.
The name Esk Brewery was retained, although Boag's Brewery became a frequent
reference, and in later years came to be known officially as the J. Boag
& Son Esk River Brewery.
Boag, the father, retired in 1887, and transferred his brewery interest
to his son. Boag's Brewery prospered and expanded, and in 1889 the adjacent
Cornwall Brewery was taken over, and the brewing operations were merged
with the Esk. In the same year the company bought the Globe Brewery in
Hobart, and its name was changed to the Hobart Brewery.
A new company, J. Bong & Son (1911) Ltd, was formed in 1911 to consolidate the company's business interests, and during that year the Union Brewery was purchased from the Tasmanian Co-operative Brewery Co. Ltd. The Tamar Brewery was bought and closed in 1917; and in 1922 the company purchased and closed the Derwent Brewery, Hobart (formerly the Jolly Hatters Brewery).
James Boag III was born in 1881, and he joined the J. Boag & Son Brewery in 1919, the year of his father's death. Over the remainder of the century ownership changed a number of times:
- Cascade Brewery on 1 March 1922
- Tasmanian Breweries Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of Cascade) in 1957.
- Industrial Equity Ltd of New Zealand in 1984
- New Zealand-based company, Wilson Neill Australia Ltd in 1988
- Name was changed to the Cascade Group Ltd in 1990
- Cascade Group was aquired by Cadenza International Ltd. in 1992
- Joint venture formed in January 1993 between CUB and the Cascade Group
In 1998 James Boag's Premium Lager, was awarded the title of Grand Champion
at the Australian International Beer Awards with 425 beers representing
100 breweries entered. This was the first time an Australian beer had
won this title. In the same competition the brewery itself was also awarded
the title of "Best Brewery in Australasia", firmly established the company's
reputation as Australia's Premium Brewer.
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 |
Research is the key
Rather than follow someone else's recipe, I decided to 'brew' my own. I started by doing some research. First, it was down to the local to buy some of the commercial product and do some serious taste testing. (I love this hobby!)
With this as the starting point, I then compared it to the beer I made using the Brewcraft recipe. Next was an Internet search on 'Boag's Premium'. The Boag's home page was a mine of information and well worth a visit. I also found a few other sites that gave useful information. This included:
- Fresh European style elegance, sprightly liveliness
- Lagered for 60 days
- Pride of Ringwood hops; Hersbrucker; late hopping
- Finest Tasmanian malt; pilsner malts; Franklin malt
- Fermentation at low temperature
- Original Gravity 1045
- Final Gravity 1004
- Colour 6-8 EBC
- 5.0% Alc/Vol
James Boag's Premium Lager is a European style lager brewed from the
finest quality pilsner malts. This beer is fermented at a lower temperature
than most Australian lagers and employs an extended maturation period.
A mixture of kettle and late hopping yields a crisp pale lager which perfectly
complements fine food.
Recipe Design
It is amazing what you can find when you look around. This is probably as good a start as you get with most beers. Quite obviously this beer is made in Tasmania. Thinking locally, Pride of Ringwood, Tasmanian Hersbrucker and Franklin Lager malt are all products of Tasmania. This helps to clarify the ingredient list. My guess is that there is not much other than Franklin malt in the grain bill. Judging by the low final gravity there is a reasonable proportion of sugar in there as well. I just couldn't bear to copy this part of the recipe, so I've gone for a fuller bodied lager.
On it's own, Franklin will be a little light in colour, so I've added some Crystal malt to achieve the required 6-8 EBC. I also chose to throw in a little wheat malt to ensure good head retention.
I don't know how many bitterness units there are in the beer. I initially guessed it to be similar to Cascade Premium Lager (another Tasmanian product) which is rated at 25 IBU. My first brew was a touch too bitter in comparison to the original, so I reduced the next one to 23 IBU. I think that I would reduce it to about 20 IBU if I were to make another batch. In my recipe I use Pride of Ringwood for bittering and the Hersbrucker for flavour and aroma. I interpreted 'late hopping' to mean dry hopping in a secondary fermenter. I think steeping hops at the end of boil for 5 minutes would be sufficient though.
Tasmanian water is soft and great for making lagers. Fortunately for me the same applies to Melbourne. I decided I would not tamper at all with the water profile.
The Wyeast Danish was my choice of yeast because it's description seemed
closest to the Boag's profile. The fermentation temperatures were designed
for the long lagering process. I aimed at 21 days in the primary, followed
by a diacetyl rest (at higher temperature) and then in the secondary at
low temperature to do some serious lagering. I have a freezer with a temperature
control so I can be finicky about these things.
The First Batch
Version 1 was great.
It was my first all-grain lager and exceeded expectations. With barely two weeks in the bottle, it came close to winning an award in the 2000 VicBrew competition. I also learnt a fair bit from this one.
The recipe was too dark and so Version 2 has less crystal malt in it.
I also over-carbonated the first. The other main difference between version
1 and 2 is I stepped up the aroma and flavour hops on the latest brew.
The first one may have been more like the Boag's product in this area,
but I decided to make the second batch for my palate rather than some
generalised non-offensive, market research palate.
So how does it rate?
Well it looks pretty good. The colour is very close to a Boag's. The second batch was still higher in carbonation though. Clarity is great due to the finings and extended lagering.
Now the aroma - well the Hersbrucker nose is really prominent. It is bolder than the Boag's but that's the way I like it!
Flavour - crisp, quite clean, prominent Hersbrucker in the palate. I must say I do like it. It is to not quite as smooth as the original and still too bitter for balance.
Well it is not an exact Boag's clone but it is much closer than the original
Brewcraft recipe I tried. I am really quite pleased at how close it is
considering that this is only attempt number 2. As I said earlier, it
remains a 'work in progress'.
A Work In Progress
The work to fine-tune that perfect lager will continue. It is hard, but someone has to do it!
I will brew the ultimate lager one day - for my palate at least. And
I will totally enjoy the process and the testing.
I hope this has whet your appetite and you will give these recipes a go or have a go at designing your own beers.
cheers, Arnie
References
GLOVER, Brian - The World Encyclopedia of Beer
DEUTSHER, Keith - The Breweries of Australia