Tag Archives: cereal mash

Alta California Lager 2026

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I’ve enjoyed my Mexican-style pale lager recipe over the years, which has followed the same core ingredients but with variations in how I handle the corn. This includes either flaked corn directly in the mash or grits in a cereal mash. The latter is a lot of work, but opens up varieties of corn and subtle flavors not possible with the standard flaked ingredients. So, I aimed for the extra effort of a cereal mash on this iteration.

This particular batch was brewed to celebrate the major accomplishment of a friend who defended her master’s thesis (I served on her committee as a outside member, too). She had shared that even though she’s not really a beer person, the original version of this recipe was a favorite of hers. That was all the excuse I needed to return to the cereal mash!

Alta California Lager 2026

  • 5.75 lb. Synergy Select pilsen malt (Briess)
  • 2 lb. white corn grits (Palmetto Farms)
  • 1.75 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
  • 0.4 oz. Magnum hop pellets (12.3% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Kick carrageenan tablet
  • 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (2.4% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 0.5 tsp. WLN1000 yeast nutrient (White Labs), 5 minute boil
  • 2 pkg. Diamond Lager yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • Infusion mash, with 75 minutes at 148°, and 10 minutes at 168°, with cereal mash at first step; full volume mash
  • 1.044 o.g., 1.006 f.g., 5.0% abv, 21 IBU, 3 SRM
  • Water built from RO, to hit 20 ppm Ca and 35 ppm Cl
  • 5 gallon batch

Procedure

  • The first step in the process was a cereal mash. I had intended 0.5 lb. of pilsner malt (as did in my first batch), but mismeasured and had 1 lb. instead. I combined ~0.75 gallons of RO water with the corn grits and pilsner malt, heating the mixture on the stove to 158°. I held the mash here for 10 minutes, before bringing everything to a boil. During a 30 minute boil, I added another 0.5 gallons or so of RO water.
  • In my Anvil Foundry, I started with 6.25 gallons of water, to which I added 1.5 grams of calcium chloride. I heated this to 140°.
  • During the last 7 minutes or so of the cereal mash, I mashed in the rest of the grains to hit a temperature of ~130° degrees. Then, a few minutes later, I added the boiling cereal mash. This heated the entire mash to around 145°, and then I added heat via the Anvil heating element to get up to 148°. I added 2 tbs. of 10% phosphoric acid to adjust pH.
  • I held the mash at 148° for 75 minutes, before raising to 168° for 10 minutes.
  • At the end of the mash, I pulled the grains. The runnings came out to 6.56 gallons at a gravity of 1.038, for 73% mash efficiency.
  • I heated the runnings to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe. At the end of the 60 minute boil, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort to 74°, before transferring to the fermenter. I chilled the fermenter the rest of the way in the fermentation chamber, down to 50°. 12 hours after the initial transfer, I pitched the yeast directly.
  • I brewed this beer on 9 April 2026. Starting gravity was 1.045.
  • The fermenter was held at 52° for fermentation, and it was cold crashed to 34 degrees on 4 May 2026. I kegged the beer on 9 May 2026, using a semi-closed transfer. The beer was slightly hazy at this point, with a very slight fruity aroma (corn?).
  • Final gravity was 1.007, for 5.1% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Light straw yellow beer, with a modestly persistent white head. There is a very slight haze to this, which is annoying (especially given how long it has been lagering).
  • Aroma
    • The beer has a gorgeous aroma, with a light cracker and corn character. No hop aroma to speak of, nor is there any yeast character that I pick up.
  • Flavor
    • Medium-low cracker-like malt flavor, with a hint of corn sweetness. Medium-low bitterness, clean fermentation profile. Evenly balanced.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Light bodied, crisp mouthfeel, medium-high carbonation.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is an incredibly tasty and very drinkable beer; it hits pretty much all of the flavor and aroma notes I was hoping for. The sensory contribution from the corn is subtle, but absolutely perfect. I love this recipe! The only minor annoyance is the persistent haze. I need to figure that out in my next batch, because it has been a perpetual issue in most iterations of the recipe. Maybe I need to change water chemistry, and increase the calcium chloride dose? At a minimum, I should hit the keg with a clarifier next time.
    • Serving mod: my friend tells me that the beer is delicious with chamoy and tajin on the rim. Now I have to try this!
  • Overall
    • 8/10

Alta California Lager

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It’s late spring in California…theoretically, this should be a warm time of the year. A few months back, I wanted to have a clear, clean, tasty Mexican-style lager on hand for the anticipated afternoons out on the patio. It’s ended up being a cooler and rainier stretch than I expected, but that hasn’t hampered my enjoyment of this beer.

I’ve never brewed a Mexican-style lager in the vein of Corona or Modelo before, so this challenge started with some research. Corn is a key ingredient–but when I stopped by my local shop, they had just sold out of their last flaked corn (everyone else had the same recipe plans, I guess)! So, I took the suggestion to try a cereal mash with corn grits. This contingency plan apparently made all of the difference.

My recipe is based primarily on the Light Mexican Lager recipe in the May/June 2017 issue of Zymurgy (by Amahl Turczyn). The name for this recipe is an homage to the old provincial name for my part of California. It has little link with anything historical, because Alta California ceased to exist before German brewing techniques were widely adopted in Mexico…

This beer is going down as a legendary batch–I had fun brewing it with my dad (we rarely get to brew together because of the distance), and the beer tastes amazing. The cereal mash was a ton of work and substantially lengthened my brew day, but the results were worth it.

IMG_20190402_072248

White corn grits, ready to go into the cereal mash

Alta California Lager

  • 5.5 lbs. Barke pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 2 lbs. white corn grits
  • 1.5 lb. Vienna malt (Great Western)
  • 4 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.35 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax, 10 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (3.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. WLP940 Mexican Lager yeast (White Labs), prepared in 1.75 L starter

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash with cereal mash, 152°, batch sparge
  • 1.055 o.g., 1.012 f.g., 5.7% abv, 44 IBU, 8 SRM
  • “Mexican lager water”, built from ~8.5 gallons of RO water with 1.5 g of calcium chloride, to hit ~13 ppm Ca and 23 ppm Cl, -9 RA

Procedure

  • This was a complicated brew session! Lots of moving parts, all happening at roughly the same time.
  • A few days in advance, I made a 1.75L starter, letting it ferment out and then cold-crashing. The supernate was decanted off before pitching.
  • My cereal mash procedure followed recommendations from Milk The Funk. I combined 0.5 lb. of the pilsner malt with the 2 lb. of white corn grits, adding water until things were at the right consistency. This was around a gallon of RO water. I added water until the grains approximated a “thin gruel” consistency, and held it at 158° for 5 minutes. Then, I heated the cereal mash to a boil, stirring constantly for 30 minutes. We added water as needed to keep it from getting too thick.
  • As the cereal mash was nearing its end, we started the main mash, using 3 gallons of RO water with ~0.5 g of CaCl, heated to 138°. We hit a mash temperature (for just the barley, exclusive of the barley and corn in the cereal mash) of 133°. I added 6 mL of 88% lactic acid, and then added in the near-boiling cereal mash. This brought the temperature up to 145°. I added another 0.5 gallon of water at near boiling to hit around 148.5°.
  • After 75 minutes, the mash was down to 143°. I added 1 gallon of water at 200° to bring the mash up to 149°. I let this sit for 15 more minutes, and then used an iodine test to check for conversion. Success! The mash was converted completely.
  • I collected the first runnings, and then added 4.5 gallons of RO water with 1 g of CaCl, to raise the mash up to 160°. After 10 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, we collected 7.1 gallons of runnings, with a gravity of 1.037. This equates to 79% mash efficiency!
  • Because my gravity was a little low and my volume a little high, I boiled the runnings for 20 minutes before adding the hops. This was followed by a 60 minute boil, adding the various ingredients per the recipe. Towards the end of the boil, the gravity was up to 1.048, a little higher than I wanted. So, I added 0.25 gallon of RO water for adjustment.
  • After the full 80 minutes of boiling, I chilled the wort down to ~80° and transferred to the fermenter. I chilled it down further to 50° before oxygenating (30 seconds) and pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed this beer on 2 April 2019, starting with a 50° fermentation temperature as mentioned above. On 3 April, I raised the temperature to 53°. On 9 April, I raised the temperature to 60°, because I wanted to kick this through quickly.
  • I raised the temperature to 62° on 12 April, and 67° on 14 April.
  • Final gravity was 1.010, which equates to 4.6% abv. I cold crashed to 33° on 16 April 2019.
  • I kegged the beer using a closed transfer on 24 April 2019. This was done to reduce oxygen pick-up and keep the beer fresher for longer.
  • I force-carbonated the beer,noted that it had dropped pretty clear within about 2 weeks, and crystal clear within about 3 weeks. By the time of my tasting (~4 weeks after kegging), this beer was brilliant!

IMG_20190514_161406

Tasting

  • Aroma
    • Clean, slight hint of corn, a little bit of hop spiciness
  • Appearance
    • Brilliantly clear, light gold in color. The tall white head settles down to a rim around the glass as the beer is consumed
  • Flavor
    • Crisp and clean; the grainy malt has a hint of corn behind it, and that is backed up by an assertive but not overwhelming hop bitterness. The finish is tilted towards the bitter end versus the malty end, but not overly so.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Off-dry, moderately high carbonation, smooth finish
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is (modestly speaking) an amazing beer! I’m incredibly impressed by how this one rounded out. It’s eminently drinkable, and ridiculously beautiful in appearance. When I brought it to my brew club meeting, several people thought that I had thrown a commercial ringer into the mix! I’ve never had a lager clear so completely and so quickly. I suspect it’s a combination of the yeast strain and cereal mash–next time I brew this recipe, I won’t be making any changes or taking any shortcuts!
  • Overall
    • 10/10