Two weeks ago I was able to buy an old fridge from my neighbor across the street. It was the perfect situation because we just wheeled it across the street on a dolly from his garage to mine! No lifting, no moving it out of a basement, about as easy of a find as possible. It hadn't been plugged in for a year or so, so it was pretty funky. I cleaned it out and left the doors open for a week, and this weekend I built a shelf out of left over plywood from my bar, plugged it in, and put two carboys in it. Needless to say I'm fairly excited, even though its not in perfect condition, $75 to pay for a working fridge/freezer with hardly any work was about the best you could ask for. I'm excited about the ability to make bocks and some lagers, and also really excited about the extra storage space in the freezer for putting grains, hops and some additional brewing ingredients, like the 3 pounds of cranberries I have left over from a couple past beers.
My first real lager attempt, my Yinzer Lager, has been tasting good after about 4 weeks in the bottle. The beer pours a really nice light golden color with a thin white head that is fairly lacy. It's crystal clear with a faint fruity aroma. It's very crisp with a slight hoppy spiciness.
This beer was inspired by Pittsburgh beers like Yuengling and Iron City, but I don't know how close it is to either of those. One friend of mine said it had a nice "grainy" quality to it, which is good since I associate those flavors with what I was going for. My friend Brian, a native of Pittsburgh, said that its way too hoppy for a Pittsburgh lager but added, "that's not a bad thing at all."
Overall I was fairly happy with the experiment. The people who have tried it have like it, but I don't think it stands out. Personally, I'm not a big lager fan, and I made it just for the experience of making a lager. A special thanks goes out to Ted at Ted's Homebrew Blog for some consulting on the finer points of lagering.
Because of the fridge, I definitely plan on doing some more lagers, but I'm thinking about some more interesting ones, and I'm happy to know that I can achieve the crispness I was looking for.
This was a 3 gallon recipe and for those interested: 
1.3 lbs Org 2-row
.25 lbs org Crystal 40
.10 lbs org Cara-pils
2 lbs org light dme
.40lbs rice syrup
.5 oz Saaz 60
.35 Saaz 15
.15 Saaz 1
Cali 2112 Yeast: Lagered for 4 weeks @ 40 degrees, brought up to 62 degrees for 1 week before bottling.
Stay tuned this week for a post on Friday in connection with the Session Series (check out Beeractivist.com for details). This month's session is related to organic brewing.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Let the Lagering Begin!
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5 comments:
A lagering fridge. Color me jealous. I've been using a poorly insulated closet in my laundry room. Needless to say, the temps fluctuate. Also, I froze a beer when the outside temp dropped below zero.
I look at is like this. I'm still even more technolgically advanced than the brewmasters of two hundred years ago, and their beers turned out fine. I'm hoping I'll discover some new awesome way of making beers.
Anyway, I'm still jealous.
I'm pretty excited about the capabilities. But my Yinzer was lagered by being left on my garage floor,and my maibock last year was done the same way. You're right, back in the day, especially in the midwest, beer was lagered without fancy refridgeration.
But...I'm excited to be able to lager in the summer. I'm not going to lie!
Hey, just picked up a used fridge too! I haven't had success with lagers yet. This time it will be different ;-)
Cheers!
There's nothing like home brewing your own fine lager beer. I love how distinctive they are among all the other ales brewed during the year.I really do enjoy it, especially how it was a seasonal activity. I say "was" because now that I just got into kegging, I will be using the community frig in the basement of our condo building to keep them chilled. No one else uses it, and I can simply plug it into our unit's power supply if I need it.
Looks like I may have the ability to ferment some lagers during warmer months. Or I may get a head start or prolong the winter lagering season with it. Anyways...
Thanks for the shot out. I'm glad I could be of help to you. Sounds like your lager turned out pretty good. Definitely much different from all them ales, right? Cheers.
Thanks for the posts guys.
Adam- good luck with the fridge. Its totally changed my thoughts on upcoming beers because I feel like a bunch of styles have opened up for me. (Sorry Kevin)
Ted- That'll be nice to be able to start lagering (although your creative solution with the window sill was awesome!) I think the thing that struck me about the lager was how much the hops true flavor comes out. I think that in an ale, hops are part of a bigger flavor profile and in a lager, the spiciness of the saaz is definitely noticeable.
I'm excited to do some seasonal beers in time for the seasons. Like a big caramel bock for the late fall, weizenbock for winter, etc.
Thanks for the feedback!
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