Rating System

1 - don't waste valuable beer calories on me
2 - tasty, walter approves
3 - so good you should have it for breakfast

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Ben's Lager

This recipe is from Ben the brewer at Gritty's.  I have tried variations of it before, but this time it is as written.  Well almost as written. I bought an extra ounce of Saaz * from the Hop Shop and decided to add it to the secondary.   As I was getting myself primed for a fun day of brewing Judy reminded me, "Do you actually like any of Gritty's bear?"  Oh well it was going to rain all day anyway, one might as well be brewing.

It was no small feat getting supplies.  During the first trip to the Hop Shop Ed did not have any Saaz hops, I needed 9 ounces.  He said he would order some.  Yesterday we set out for a road trip including Brunswick, Freeport and then Gray.  I called Ed to see if he did get the Saaz and he said he only had 6.  I decided to go anyway because today was brew day for me, with or without the Saaz.  Well there is no easy way to get from Freeport to Gray especially with no map or GPS.  We made a 30 min trip into an hour trip, which seemed like 2 hours.  When we finally arrived at The Hop Shop Ed had remembered he had ordered Saaz for me, or someone, and all was well.  Actually he had ordered 10 ounces, the extra ounce *.

10 gallons, all grain

Grains
     Pilsner malt      18
     Munich malt       1
     Light crystal       1  *     Substitution from caramel pils malt which Ed didn't have
     Carapils malt      1.5

Hops
     Saaz          2     60 min    3.7%
     Saaz          2     20 min
     Saaz          2      5
     Summit     1     5 min     14.2%
     Saaz          2     1
     Summit     1     1

     Saaz          2 in secondary
     Summit     1 in secondary

Yeast
     Saflager     w-34/70  2 dry lager yeast

Brewed 1/10/2016  1050
Secondary. 1/18/2016  1014
Kegged 2/4/2016. 1010