Recipe Type: All Grain Yeast: WPL810 Yeast Starter: YES Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Original Gravity: 1.065 Final Gravity: 1.012 IBU: 25 Boiling Time (Minutes): 60 Color: 6 SRM Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 Days @ 55 F Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 30 Days @ 50F
This was not my first all grain lager, but its the first one that I made that was good enough to share the recipe. This is seriously one of the best beers I ever had a chance to drink, and its even better to know that I made the beer myself.
I created the recipe with ProMash, and selected the Light Lager 01-C "Premium American Lager" category. When making the recipe, I was hoping to get something that was at the upper ends of the style range with respect to Hops, Gravity, and Color. So this beer might not be exactly true to the category of "Premium American Lager", however it is a terrific lager with a great taste and its very easy to make.
I used Nugget hops for Bittering because I wanted a beer that was on the upper end of the IBUs for the style and was still smooth instead of over/harshly bitter, and I used .33 ounces. If you wanted a beer that hit more in the middle of the traditional IBU range for the style, you might bump that down slightly to only .25 oz.
I choose Hallertauer for the aroma and flavor hops simply because I thought that to be a more traditional choice for a Lager.
Hops
.33oz Nugget Pellets for Bittering 13.00% 20.4IBUs 60 Minutes
.25oz Hallertauer for Aroma 4.75% 2.6 IBUs 30 Minutes
.25oz Hallertauer for Aroma/Flavor 4.75% 1.2 IBUs 10 Minutes
Heated 3.5 gallons of water to 163F, added to the grains to bring the mash to 153 F. Mashed for 70 minutes, then sparged with 170F water till I reached a boil volume of about 7.25 gallons.
Brought it to a boil, and add the hops according to schedule. Boil Nugget for 60 minutes, then the additions of the Hallertauer at 30 and 10. I used a pretty good sized spoon of Irish Moss in the last 10 minutes, then chilled to the 60s and pitched a good sized starter of WPL810 San Francisco Lager Yeast.
Fermented for two weeks in the mid to low 50s, then racked to a secondary for four weeks in the low 50s and mid to upper 40s. After 4 weeks, bottled it and gave it 2 weeks to carbonate and another month to condition in the bottles in the fridgerator.
I plan to make this again very soon, and while I am very happy with the choice for the hops, I believe that I may possibly scale the CaraPils back to maybe only #.25.
I just started drinking the second batch of this beer. This time, I cut back on the Munich and Vienna to 1 # each and went to 9# of 2 row. Also I change yeasts and used Saflager S-23 this time, 2 packs dry - no starter. Beer fermented about the same temps and time, but finished a lot crisper and drier. Also, since I've made this again I've figured out that most likely this is not really properly categorized as "Light Lager" or even "Premium American Lager" - guess I made a mistake when I first posted the recipe , but its a pretty damn good beer anyway.
Just brewed this last Saturday. Unfortunately I forgot to take the grains out of the fridge the night before, so I upped my strike temp to compensate and overshot the mash temp, mashing at about 158. I also decided to batch sparge (I normally fly sparge) which screwed with my efficiency and I wound up with a post-boil gravity of about 1.050. I used a really big starter of the WLP810 and the fermentation kicked off within 3 or 4 hours.
We'll see how it comes out. Hopefully the lower-than-expected gravity doesn't throw the hops out of proportion.
brewing this on sunday. I have a all pilzen lager fermenting now. used saflager s -23 and it krausened fantastic. nice thick cap of yellow on top of white foam.
dry lager yeast dont scare me anymore...wish i had an open top fermenter, so i could harvest it.
All-Grain - Lakeside Lager
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