LibertyBrewer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2008
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Here are the pics of the beer. As you can see this is really clear. The second photo, I used the flash. It looks different, but the first pic shows the true color.
I added another chest freezer to my collection of appliances in the basement, and got it set up as a fermentation chamber. I decided to use this recipe for my first lager attempt. By the way, what's with the lack of american lager recipes on HBT? I didn't really see many.
Anyways, this was my smoothest brew day ever. No 'oh crap' moments at all. I wound up getting better efficiency (76%) but expected that before I started. I wound up with 5.25 gallons @ 1.051 OG. I added Gypsum, Chalk, and Lactic Acid for the mash.
Overpitched the yeast a bit, at 65 degrees, and chilled it to 51. Still no activity after about 15 hours, but I will give it some more time before trying to warm it up to wake up the yeast. I've never used S-23, is it normally a very slow starter at 50 degrees?
Just keep it cool don't warm it up, it'll be fine. Don't worry about the minimal krausen in a lager. It's cool. Sorry for the pun.
Yeah I think my buckets are getting old. I don't even get the slightest change in pressure on the airlock. I popped the cover and there is krausen. I'm hoping the s-23 does better than all the negative feedback on other threads. People were commenting that it does better in mid 50s and creates off flavors at lower temps.
boiled this recipe up on friday evening. Put it into the fermentation chamber at 51° and pitched 2 packs of rehydrated s-23 on saturday morning. Looked at it this morning and it has a nice layer of krausen on it.
Does it taste like cooked corn, or just like a corn sweetness? Cooked corn= DMS, corn sweetness= delish PAL.
Haha I honestly wouldn't know the difference between cooked corn and corn sweetness! Anyways it was time for me to transfer to secondary for lagering. During this, I filled a 1L bottle and force carbed it and threw it in the freezer. The wife and I had a glass each and both thought it was good. Tasted like a BMC but with less skunkiness, a bit more mouthfeel, and a mild fruitiness from the cascade. This would be a good one to make for a last minute party because you could go grain to glass in 10 days. Thanks for the recipe!
It tastes a whole lot better if you let it age. Trust me on this.
Boiled this recipe up on Friday evening. Put it into the fermentation chamber at 51° and pitched 2 packs of rehydrated S-23 on Saturday morning. Looked at it this morning and it has a nice layer of krausen on it.
I got the best compliment on this beer about a week ago. One of my friends was over and was drinking a glass of it, and told me, "I'd actually buy this."
If you lager until clear, then bottle, must you pitch yeast again? Or will there be enough residual yeast left over to work with the priming sugar?
I'm curious about the hops too. The hops are all aroma and really low AAs. I know lagers are a low IBU beer but even at 60 minutes it's coming out crazy low.
I didn't read through all the pages. Is it possible to do this with a single infusion rather than stepping the temperatures? If so, what temp should be used?
Make sure you lager sufficiently. It will continue to improve with age.
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