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Kyle Brown

Owner of Clawhammer Supply

Our friend Ross wanted to brew this one to celebrate an upcoming wedding. The bride and groom are known for their two old cats that pee on everything, so it was only appropriate to make them a Cat Piss Lager. Ross wanted a lager that had some catty aromas and a low ABV. Catty has been used as pejorative to describe unwanted flavors in beer, but it's not always a bad thing.

Full Cat Piss Lager Recipe and Brew Day Video

Water Chemistry

We started with 7.2 gallons (27.3 liters) of Asheville, NC city water and made a few minor adjustments, which will be different for you depending on what kind of water you're using.

10 minutes into the mash we took a pH reading and added a bit of lactic acid in order to hit our desired pH range.

Grains

We used 4.5 pounds (2kg 41.17g) of pale malt, 6 ounces (170.1g) of acid malt, 2 pounds (907.2g) of flaked corn, and 2 pounds (907.2g) of flaked rice.

We finely crush all of our grain in a grinder before mashing with it

Mash

We mashed at 148 degrees Fahrenheit (64.4C) for 60 minutes. 

Mashing in

Stirring mash - do this to remove any clumps

Mashing at a lower temperature gave us more fermentable sugars. This will give our beer a lower final gravity and a dryer finish which is appropriate for the lager style.

Pulling the grains after our 60-minute mash

Hops

We exclusively used Nelson Sauvin hops. These hops come from New Zealand and are known for their fruit punch and catty aromas. At the top of our 60 minute boil we added 0.2 ounces (5.67g) of Nelson Sauvin. At the end of the boil, we chilled our wort down to 170 degrees Fahrenheit (76.7C) and added 1.8 ounces (51.03g) of Nelson Sauvin. We let these whirlpool for 20 minutes before chilling down to 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12.8C).

Adding whirlpool hops - wort is recirculating through the hose

Yeast and Fermentation

We added two packets of White Lab's WLP802 as we did not make a starter for this beer.

Pitching yeast

We fermented at 55F (12.8C) for 14 days before raising the temperature to 68F (20C) for a 3 day diacetyl rest. 

Putting beer into a fermentation chamber

After the diacetyl rest we cold crashed the beer before transferring it to a keg. We let the keg lager for 4 weeks before the beer was ready for consumption.

Tasting

Our starting gravity was 1.048 and the beer finished with a final gravity of 1.014 giving us an ABV of 4.5%, perfect for an outdoor wedding in the summer.  The beer had a nice juicy fruit and catty aroma to it that paired well with the slight bitterness of the beer. The hops gave it more bitterness than a traditional lager with 17 IBUs, so it wasn't excessive.  Overall, this turned out to be a nice clean lager. Ross served it with pride at the wedding. 

Ross said, "I definitely get some of those catty aromas we were going for."