YA Rocky Raccoon's Crystal Honey Lager

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lkondolian

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Trying my first lager, a recipie in Papazian's book, pg 211.

I have, however, had to make a few substitutions for one reason or another. What do you guys think? Am I on the right track, or do I need to modify this? How do I convert fm hops to hop pellets?

3.5 lbs plain extra light DME
2.5 lbs light clover honey
1 oz cascade hop pellets boiling (recipie calls for 1.5 oz cascade hops [not in pellet form], which I can't find)
0.5 oz cascade hop pellets finishing (recipie calls for 0.5 oz cascade hops not pellets)
2112 Wyeast California lager 125 mL
0.75 cup DME for bottling.

Boil DME, honey and boiling pellets for 60 minutes in 1.5 gallons. Add finishing hops for last 4 minutes. strain, sparge to 2 gallons water, top off to 5 gal, add yeast when cool.

ferment at 45-55 degrees (my basement) 'till FG stabilizes -- ~2 weeks?
Bottle (no secondary) and lager also at 45-55 degrees for, um, 3 weeks?

help!
 
OK while I have never brewed a lager a few things strike me off the top. I would try to boil more volume if possible and reduce the extract until later in the boil as it will help with hop utilization. For every gallon you can boil add only a pound of extract until the last 10-15 minutes as it will help keep the color lighter. I wouldn't add the honey until the end either as it will help retain any honey flavor you may be after.

Pellet hops are a bit more concentrated than whole hops. About 10% but the key here is the alpha % that the recipe calls for and what you have. That would make a bigger difference if they are not the same or close.
Are you palnning to lager in the botle because usually it is done in bulk and then bottled.

I don't understand where you say "sparge to 2 gallons of water and then top off to 5 gallons". There are no grains in the recipe to sparge.
 
Charlie Papazian's book always uses the word "sparge" to refer to pouring hot water over the hops left over from the boil to get all the hop goodness out of them.

So he's basically saying "pour the wort through a strainer onto 2 gallons of water in the fermenter, then pour a few cups warm water through the strainer, then top off to 5 gallons."

At least if I'm understanding him right.
 
I'v got two Papazian books, and given the tone that he writes in I think he would be the first to encourage you to experiment with his recipes. I'm sure you'll have good beer.
 
This was my first lager. I brewed it and it turned out very nice. After this one I have almost exclusively brewed lagers because I am pretty lazy, and leaving beer in a secondary for 6 months seemed like a good way to avoid bottling.

Ant
 
That was my first lager. Very nice. I went about two weeks at 55 then 4 at 38-45.
I used pellet hops too.
I reduced the boiling hops by 15 pct. and added the remainder of the ounce packet
at the end for aroma.
Yummy.
Good luck
 
I have a question. In mead making you aren't supposed to boil the honey because it will take away from the end product. Why do we boil the honey in beer? Would it make a better product if we, say, didn't boil the honey at all but added it right at the end?
 
lkondolian said:
Trying my first lager, a recipie in Papazian's book, pg 211.

I have, however, had to make a few substitutions for one reason or another. What do you guys think? Am I on the right track, or do I need to modify this? How do I convert fm hops to hop pellets?

3.5 lbs plain extra light DME
2.5 lbs light clover honey
1 oz cascade hop pellets boiling (recipie calls for 1.5 oz cascade hops [not in pellet form], which I can't find)
0.5 oz cascade hop pellets finishing (recipie calls for 0.5 oz cascade hops not pellets)
2112 Wyeast California lager 125 mL
0.75 cup DME for bottling.

Boil DME, honey and boiling pellets for 60 minutes in 1.5 gallons. Add finishing hops for last 4 minutes. strain, sparge to 2 gallons water, top off to 5 gal, add yeast when cool.

ferment at 45-55 degrees (my basement) 'till FG stabilizes -- ~2 weeks?
Bottle (no secondary) and lager also at 45-55 degrees for, um, 3 weeks?

help!
Click to expand...


So this one isn't carbing, and doesn't taste crisp at all. I'm tempted to add a grain of dried lager yeast to each bottle and keep lagering/carbing at 55 deg. Worth a shot, or should I put it on my lawn tonight? (screw cap PET bottles, so doable.)
 
lkondolian said:
So this one isn't carbing, and doesn't taste crisp at all. I'm tempted to add a grain of dried lager yeast to each bottle and keep lagering/carbing at 55 deg. Worth a shot, or should I put it on my lawn tonight? (screw cap PET bottles, so doable.)
Click to expand...

Warm the bottles up to about 70 degrees for three weeks. Then, you can stick one in the fridge and see if it's carbed up. If it is, then you can put them back at cooler temperatures. It can take months to carb up at 55 degrees, even with a lager yeast. The warmer temperature for carbonation will be fine, since the flavor profile is already "set" in the beer.
 
It should carb up just fine at room temperature, but beware, it will continue carbonating even in the fridge. I just opened a year old bottle and lost 1/4 of it to a foam eruption.

Question: I've just brewed a variation on this again and want to enter it in my first BJCP competition. Is this a Braggot or just a Honey Beer in the Specialty category?
 
lkondolian said:
So this one isn't carbing, and doesn't taste crisp at all. I'm tempted to add a grain of dried lager yeast to each bottle and keep lagering/carbing at 55 deg. Worth a shot, or should I put it on my lawn tonight? (screw cap PET bottles, so doable.)
Click to expand...

In reviewing your recipie you stated .75 c DME for bottling. Isn't that a bit "lilte"? I thought you were supposed to use 1.25 c DME and only .75 c if you're using corn sugar.

Perhaps you didn't get enough sugar in the bottle to card up properly?
 

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