Freiheit Helles This is a blog of happenings in my family, with my kids, and with the politics of the world. If you don't get satire you should probably stop reading right now. I tend to ramble on, and on, and on...

This was the first beer I solo-brewed, my first lager, and the first with my own equipment so it's pretty special. Boiled 7 gallons tap water in 3 pots one half hour to remove the dissolved chlorine. With 3 gallons in my large pot I covered the over two pots and put them out in the snow to cool. Then I let the temperature of the pot still on the stove drop to 180°F. Put grains in a bag to steep: - 8 oz. Crushed Carapils - 4 oz. Crushed Vienne Malt - 4 oz. Crushed Honey Malt (During the 30 minutes of steeping the temperature dropped from 178°F to 140°F.) It's now a wort!!! Turn the heat back on & press out steeping bag. Then add the liquid malt: - 3.3 lbs. Briess CBW Non-diastatic Unhopped Munich - 3.3 lbs. Briess CBW Non-diastatic Unhopped Pilsen Light And bring the wort to a rolling boil. For hopping we'll be using: - 1 oz. 4.3% Alpha Acid Liberty Hops (bittering) - 0.5 oz. 3.1% Alpha Acid German Hersbrucker Hops (flavoring) Add bittering hops & boil 30 minutes. Add bittering hops & boil 5 further minutes. Added the cooled water from the other pots to bring the wort volume up to 5 gallons, covered it, and put it out into the snow to cool. Of course, if you don't have a snowbank nearby then an ice bath in a sink or tub will work just as well.
A cool basement laundry room was my chosen location for fermentation, but anywhere consistently in the mid 50's will work for primary fermentation of a lager. (Note: This is much colder than for ale yeast, which is a different species.) When the wort temperature gets down in the 60's the lager yeast can be pitched. Then the long slow wait begins for bubbling to appear. A lager usually takes longer to ferment, maybe even several weeks. For this one, visible bubbling was apparent after 24 hours and lasted 7 days. Next up the beer is racked off the dead yeast cells forming a sludge on the bottom of the primary fermentation container. The idea is to minimize the beer's contact with the open air during this step, so I use a siphon. Secondary fermentation will take place during the lagering stage, when the temperature is lowered into the mid 40's for an extended period (a month is usually good). For this step fancy people have a dedicated fridge, but an especially cold basement closet works equally as well in the winter. During the summer lager brewing really requires this extra equipment.

After a month of lagering the wait is finally over, and you can bottle the beer. I use a bottling bucket. Great little piece of technology that makes things go simply and smoothly. Siphon the beer into the bottling bucket. Taste some. (The most important step! By now it should taste like flat beer. If it doesn't, well, it may not be worth taking the time to bottle it. You also want to make sure you do this BEFORE you add the bottling sugar. Just that little bit of sweetness can really throw off the flavor until it's been converted to alcohol in the bottle.) Boil 1-2 cups of water with 5 oz. bottling sugar (regular powdered sugar will do). Once boiled & dissolved, stir the mixture into the beer in the bottling bucket. Meanwhile, a sterilization boil of the bottle caps is probably also a good idea. And you should have plenty of clean bottles ready. If you spend an hour or two cleaning bottles after adding the bottling sugar there may not be enough of it left for carbonation by the time you get the beer into the bottles. Two weeks in a nice, warm place (~75°F) and the Freiheit Helles will be ready to drink. Although you might want to chill it first...