Help with clone recipe

Extreme noob here. I brewed one batch so far from a kit, then quickly realized it would be more fun to skip the kit. So, I find a clone for my favorite beer, Yuengling Lager, but is written in shorthand for more experience brewers. Can someone help me decipher what to do when? I found various recipes, but decided on this one from: http://www.tastybrew.com/brews/view/8

Here are the directions, but I need further explanation. Thanks so much.

4.5 lbs Laaglander Light Malt Extract
1 lb Rice
1 lb Cara-pils
.5 lb Crystal Malt
1 oz Northern Brewer hops (60 mins)
1/3 oz Tettnanger (10 mins)
1/5 oz Saaz (5 mins)
California Lager 2112 yeast
PREPARATION
Steep grains in 1 gallon water at 158 degrees for 1/2 hour. Remove grains. Add DME and rice solids. Boil 1 hour adding hops at times listed above. Cool wort and pitch yeast.

steakfries said:

. . . . .Steep grains in 1 gallon water at 158 degrees for 1/2 hour. Remove grains. Add DME and rice solids. Boil 1 hour adding hops at times listed above. Cool wort and pitch yeast.

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What do you need besides that? You have to purchase the ingredients seperately from a homebrew store or on-line.

Brew on my friend

thanks. I'm just worried about adding the wrong stuff, so I have:

1. steep grains in 1 gallon water: Is that the .5lb crystal malt?
2. Add dme. What? Is that the 4.5 Malt extract, I'm guessing.
3. When do I add the Cara-pils. Or, is that part of number 1?
4. I get cool wort, but what does pitch yeast mean? Literally throw it out or is that a brewing term?

heres an interesting tidbit I had found:
Notes About The Recipe This recipes calls for rice. I know for a fact that Yuengling uses corn grits. Yes, corn grits, the kind that you can buy at the grocery store. I have used corn grits it recipes and I know that they can cause boil overs. So, after the malt begins to boil, slowly add the corn grits and stir to keep them from settling to the bottom of the pot.

steakfries said:

thanks. I'm just worried about adding the wrong stuff, so I have:

1. steep grains in 1 gallon water: Is that the .5lb crystal malt?
2. Add dme. What? Is that the 4.5 Malt extract, I'm guessing.
3. When do I add the Cara-pils. Or, is that part of number 1?
4. I get cool wort, but what does pitch yeast mean? Literally throw it out or is that a brewing term?

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I would recommend reading over: www.howtobrew.com.

You'll have some grains when you purchase your items. Carapils is a grain, the crystal malt is a grain, and so is rice. But in this case, I wouldn't recommend buying and using rice. Use rice syrup, also available in the store. If they don't have rice syrup, buy corn sugar (dextrose) instead.

You'll put the grains together in a bag, and steep them like tea for 20 minutes. Steep at 150-160 degrees, and then throw the grains away. Then you can add the extract and the corn sugar and bring it to a boil.

I have a few suggestions, though. First, that recipe is not going to give you anything like the lager you want. It uses California lager yeast, fermented at ale temperatures. That's not going to give you anything like the results you would hope for. Making lagers is a bit more difficult than ales, and much more temperature dependent. It will take about 12 weeks, using perfect brewing techniques.

If you're new to brewing, I'd suggest making a simpler recipe for your first few attempts. Maybe a cream ale, if you like the idea of a light, crisp beer.

Wow, I'm new to the sport of brewing myself but I'll be keeping tabs on your post. I'm from PA -- now living in AZ and would love it if I could make something close to delicious Yuengling nectar out here. I think I may have to dig some caves to try to get my landscape more like Pottsville out here but it's worth a try!

As for your recipe, hopefully some more experienced brewers will help out, but I'll give it a shot.

It looks like the recipe is for a 5gal batch. The first ingredient is a type of malt extract. Based on the instructions, it looks like it's a dry version. There is some talk about what type of rice to use on the TastyBrew page but I believe that would be one of your specialty ingredients. The Cara and Crystal malt are both other types of grain that you could buy and get pressed at a home brew shop. The next three ingredients look like different types of hops and it's telling you when to add them in the 60 minute boil cycle after you've steeped your grains and extracted the goodness. Next is a type of yeast -- it looks like this one is made by Wyeast and is a liquid yeast.

Once you've got the ingredients, I believe the procedure would go something like this:

1) Bring 1 gal of water up to temp (probably something higher than 158 since the temp will go down a bit when you add the grains).
2) Add your grains (possibly in a grain bag) and keep them at 158 degrees for a half an hour agitating every 5 minutes or so.
3) Remove and drain the grains and add your Malt Extract (ingredient #1) and the rice or whatever variant of that you choose based on the TastyBrew page.
4) Bring to a boil and add the different hops at the time indicated. I think it's probably assuming that you're counting down from 60minutes -- so Northern first, Saaz last...better check me on that though.
5) After an hour cool your wort down to around 80 degrees -- aerate it however you choose and get it into your primary fermenting vessel and pitch the yeast (put it in)....maybe shake some more depending upon what type of vessel you're using for your fermenting.
6) I've only ever done all grain brews, and this is a partial so it seems like the quantity of liquid is less than 5 gallons and you may top of you container with some water. You'll have to check on that too.
7) This recipe mentions a primary and a secondary fermentation, there are plenty of posts on here about the ins and outs of that and whether you want to do that or not...basically you'll be fermenting for three weeks whichever way you go and then bottling and aging for another month.
8) The Original and Final Gravity's are mentioned (OG and FG) for you to make measurements with a hydrometer. Read more about that on this site.

Good luck to you! I hope it all works out. I may have to do this one soon myself. Hopefully some others join in to fill any gaps or mistakes I made.

Cheers!

Thanks yooperbrew. You're right. I think I was going for too much too soon. I'll start a little simpler and work towards the lager.

I forgot to tell you in my last post that Laaglander extract isn't available any more. You can buy another brand, though.

I would leave out the rice and use 5 lbs of DME (light or extra light). Crystal malt comes in several different colors. I'd go with 40. Ignore the Tettnanger hop addition. Buy 1 oz of Saaz and put 1/2 in at 10 min and 5 min. Don't use lager yeast, use Safale-05 or Wyeast 1056.