Spring Lager

The Mash
• Heat 2 quarts (1.9 liters) of water to 160°F (71°C).
• Add grain (This is called “mashing in.” Take note of jargon. Or don’t).
• Mix gently with spoon or spatula until mash has consistency of oatmeal.
Add water if too dry or hot. Temperature will drop to ~150°F (66°C).
• Cook for 60 minutes at 144-152°F (63-68°C). Stir every 10 minutes, and use
your thermometer to take temperature readings from multiple locations.
• You likely don’t need to apply heat constantly. Get it up to temperature,
then turn the heat off. Monitor, stir, and adjust accordingly to keep in range.
• After 60 minutes, heat to 170°F (77°C) while stirring constantly (“Mashing
Out”).

The Sparge
• Heat additional 4 quarts (3.8 liters) of water to 170°F (77°C).
• Set up your “lauter tun” (a strainer over a pot).
• Carefully add the hot grain mash to the strainer, collecting the liquid that
passes through.
• This liquid is called “wort” (pronounced “wert”). It will be your beer.
• Slowly and evenly pour 170°F (77°C) water over the mash to extract the
grain’s sugars.
• You want to collect 5 quarts (4.75 liters) of wort. You will lose about 20%
to evaporation later on, so you want to start with a bit more than you’ll end
with.
• Re-circulate wort through grain once.

The Boil
• In a pot, heat wort until it boils.
• Keep boiling until you’ve hit the “hot break” (Wort will foam - you may
need to reduce heat slightly so it doesn’t boil over.)
• Stir occasionally. All you want is a light boil – too hot and you lose
fermentable sugars and volume.
• The boil will last 60 minutes. Start your timer and add in the rest of the
ingredients at these times:

• Add 1/6 Northern Brewer Hops at start of boil.
  
• Add 1/6 Northern Brewer Hops at 15 minutes.
  
• Add 1/6 Northern Brewer Hops at 30 minutes.
  
• Add 1/6 Northern Brewer Hops at 45 minutes.
  
• Add 1/6 Northern Brewer Hops at 55 minutes.
  
• At 60 minutes turn off heat, add remaining Northern Brewer Hops.
  • Twenty percent of the wort will have evaporated in this step leaving you
  with 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of wort. If your boil was a bit high, the surface area
  of your pot extra large, or you brewed on a really hot day, you may have
  less than the full amount. Don’t worry – you just reduced your beer a bit
  too much, but you can add more water in the next step.
  
  Fermentation
  • Place brew pot in an ice bath until it cools to 70°F (21°C).
  • Once cooled, place strainer over funnel and pour your beer into the
  glass fermenter. Yeast needs oxygen. The strainer helps aerate your wort
  and clarify your beer (as well as catch any sediment from going into the
  fermenter). Add tap water to bring wort up to 1 Gallon mark if level is low.
  • “Pitch” yeast. (Toss half of the packet in.)
  • Shake aggressively. You’re basically waking up the yeast and getting more
  air into the wort.
  • Attach sanitized screw-top stopper to bottle. Slide rubber tubing no more
  than 1” (2.5 cm) into the stopper and place the other end in small bowl of
  sanitizer. You’ve just made a “blow-off tube”. It allows CO2 to escape.
  • Let sit for two or three days or until vigorous bubbling subsides. This is
  when fermentation is highest. You may notice bubbles and foam at the
  top of the beer. After bubbling calms down, clean tubing and ready your
  airlock.
  • Sanitize, then re-assemble airlock, filling up to line with sanitizer.
  • Insert airlock into hole in stopper.
  • Keep in a dark place for two weeks without disturbing other than to show
  off to friends. (If beer is still bubbling, leave sitting until it stops.)
  • In the meantime, drink beer with self-closing swing tops, or ask for empties
  at a bar that has some. If you have a bottle capper and caps, you can save
  two six packs of non-twistoff beers instead.
  
  Two Weeks Later: Bottling
  • Thoroughly rinse bottles with water, removing any sediment.
  • Mix remaining sanitizer with water.
  • Fill each bottle with a little sanitizer and shake. Empty after two minutes,
  rinse with cold water and dry upside down.
  • Dissolve 3 tablespoons honey with 1/2 cup water. Pour into a sanitized pot.
  You will be siphoning your beer into the same pot in the next steps.
  
• Carbonation comes from adding sugar when bottling, so if you filled
  your jug with less than the full gallon in the last step, use less honey
  when bottling. Using the full amount can result in your beer being
  over-carbonated.
  • Siphoning (It all happens pretty fast. You may want to practice on a pot of
  water a few times.) To see it in action first, watch the How to Bottle video at
  brooklynbrewshop.com/instructions.
  A. Attach open tubing clamp to tubing.
  B. Fill tubing with sanitizer.
  C. Attach sanitized tubing to the short curved end of your sanitized
  racking cane. Attach the black tip to the other end - it will help
  prevent sediment from getting sucked up. It will probably be a snug
  fit, but you can get it on there.
  D. Pinch tubing clamp closed.
  E. Remove screw-cap stopper and place racking cane into jug, just
  above the sediment at the bottom (“trub”).
  F. Lower end of tubing not connected to racking cane into sink.
  Suction will force beer up and through the racking cane and tubing.
  Open tubing clamp, let sanitizer flow into sink until beer just starts
  to flow out of the tubing, then clamp shut. Open clamp on tubing,
  allowing beer to flow into pot with sugar solution. Tilt jug when beer
  level is getting low, but be careful in not sucking up the trub.
  • Siphon beer from pot into bottles, pinching tube clamp to stop flow after
  each bottle.
  • Close bottles.
  • Store in a dark place for 2 weeks.
  
  Two Weeks Later: Enjoying
  • Put beers in the fridge the night before you drink them.
  • Drink. Share with friends if you’re the sharing type