shafferpilot
Well-Known Member
For those who don't believe in letting a beer take its time:
This was my first lager. A month ago, it tasted like burnt corn grits and was cloudy as a Cincinnati day in April. Now it's a delightful full flavoured American Lager with the tell tale sweet corn over-tones. I'll be making this one again for sure. Most of my friends are BMC people, and this is the beer that has them asking, "So what else do you make???". That opens the door to the variety of Brown Ales, Red Ales, Bocks, and Porters that those people would never had tried. Here's the Recipe:
3 lbs corn grits (cooked with approx 1.5 gallon of water in a 3 gallon pot for 1 hour, stir constantly, but don't scrape the burnt stuff on the bottom)
9 lbs American 2-Row Briess
Mash Schedule:
Cook corn grits in a large pot with enough water to keep it liquid for 1 hour
Put Barley in mash tun
Pour boiled grits into mash tun while still quite hot
Add enough water to make mash liquid (i don't measure this exactly
)
Use cold water to hit first temp step:
112 degrees dough-in 1 hour
use steam infusion to raise temp to remaining steps:
135 degrees protien rest 1 hour
157 degrees sacharification (sp?) for 1 hour
170 degrees mash-out
Sparge with 185 degree water to collect 6.5 gallons of wort.
Boil schedule:
60 minutes - Centenniel 0.5 ounces
10 minutes - Cascade 1 ounce
- Centenniel 0.25 ounce
Ferment with Brewferm Lager Yeast for 1.5 weeks at 52 degrees
quickly heat fermenter to 65 degrees for two days for a diacetyl rest
Cool fermenter to 52 degrees over 1 day
Step temp down 1 degree per day for 12 days to 40 degrees
Lager at 40 degrees for 1 month (i did this part in a pre-chilled keg under a little CO2 pressure)
Drink the first gallon. It doesn't taste perfect yet, but give it some more time.
Refill keg with one gallon of filtered, pre-boiled water.
Leave for 1 more month at 37 degrees for perfection.
I know there are a lot of extra steps, but I wanted to report exactly what i did to this poor, tortured beer. I never thought it would ever turn out good. For the first month it smelled like ASS!! Eventually it matured into my very favorite homebrew! And of course it's a complicated process, that's because I decided I really like it. Life can't be too easy, can it? I guess I'll do ten gallons next time
This was my first lager. A month ago, it tasted like burnt corn grits and was cloudy as a Cincinnati day in April. Now it's a delightful full flavoured American Lager with the tell tale sweet corn over-tones. I'll be making this one again for sure. Most of my friends are BMC people, and this is the beer that has them asking, "So what else do you make???". That opens the door to the variety of Brown Ales, Red Ales, Bocks, and Porters that those people would never had tried. Here's the Recipe:
3 lbs corn grits (cooked with approx 1.5 gallon of water in a 3 gallon pot for 1 hour, stir constantly, but don't scrape the burnt stuff on the bottom)
9 lbs American 2-Row Briess
Mash Schedule:
Cook corn grits in a large pot with enough water to keep it liquid for 1 hour
Put Barley in mash tun
Pour boiled grits into mash tun while still quite hot
Add enough water to make mash liquid (i don't measure this exactly
)Use cold water to hit first temp step:
112 degrees dough-in 1 hour
use steam infusion to raise temp to remaining steps:
135 degrees protien rest 1 hour
157 degrees sacharification (sp?) for 1 hour
170 degrees mash-out
Sparge with 185 degree water to collect 6.5 gallons of wort.
Boil schedule:
60 minutes - Centenniel 0.5 ounces
10 minutes - Cascade 1 ounce
- Centenniel 0.25 ounce
Ferment with Brewferm Lager Yeast for 1.5 weeks at 52 degrees
quickly heat fermenter to 65 degrees for two days for a diacetyl rest
Cool fermenter to 52 degrees over 1 day
Step temp down 1 degree per day for 12 days to 40 degrees
Lager at 40 degrees for 1 month (i did this part in a pre-chilled keg under a little CO2 pressure)
Drink the first gallon. It doesn't taste perfect yet, but give it some more time.
Refill keg with one gallon of filtered, pre-boiled water.
Leave for 1 more month at 37 degrees for perfection.
I know there are a lot of extra steps, but I wanted to report exactly what i did to this poor, tortured beer. I never thought it would ever turn out good. For the first month it smelled like ASS!! Eventually it matured into my very favorite homebrew! And of course it's a complicated process, that's because I decided I really like it. Life can't be too easy, can it? I guess I'll do ten gallons next time
