# Beer recipes



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

What style lager are you looking for? Oktoberfest/Maerzens are popular right now, but a good bock'll be ready for the midwinter warmer.

Simple and decoction don't share much territory. IMO decoctions are fun for historical accuracy but not really necessary for a good and authentic lager (this has been discussed and _anal_yzed quite a bit; even a taste panel at the _Weihenstephan_ institute couldn't reliably triangle out a decoction). That said, a reasonable decoction (single, double or triple?) can be performed on the stovetop, or even more easily in a small pressure cooker. For my money, or more accurately my time, I skip the decoct and either boil harder &/or a little longer for melaniodin formation in the kettle, or (more often) use what I call "decoction in a bag", melanoidin malt. Honey malt or aromatic malt, judiciously used, can also tweak a good malt profile into greatness.

Let us know what style of lager you'd like and we can share some tried-and-trues.

BTW, the GABF this year, I thought, had some good lagers. I was especially impressed to find several British-style milds, even a couple good ones. After years of railing against the American craft-brewing arms race (alcohol, IBUs) the message is finally getting out there. The session beer revolution is on!


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Well, I was thinking of a Bavarian Helles or Fest beer. Here is what I have to work with:

3 lbs each of Belgian, German and American (6 row) malt.

1 lbs light German X-tal

1 lbs acidulated malt

carafoam dehusked chocholate malt

unlimited Styrian Goldings and Saazer hops

Sfale dried lager yeast

Any water additive you can name

A homemade "zap-pap" lautering system

A variety of buckets and strainers.

no ability to provide true lagering temps :-(


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Sorry for the delays, life intrudes







. Do you have an unheated, attached porch or garage or such? You can try putting a carboy of water out there, and monitor it's temps for a few days. Hopefully you can find an area that doesn't fluctuate too much and the temo it runs will help us pick a yeast strain (SafAle is a quality yeast, but a lager fermented too warm gets funky).

If not, we'll make a recipe made with a clean ale yeast and ferment it cool. It'll make a great beer, perhaps not exactly or technically a lager, but one you'll enjoy and be proud to serve.


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Sorry, no means of producing anything like true lager temps for at least another month. I've tried everything and prefer a warmish lager yeast to cool ale yeasts. WY2006 is a fav of mine, but the dried will have to do b/c I let the culture die a couple months ago. I think that I'm going to single temp infush the Belgian Pils, drain off the wort and then boil it to add to the 122 F German/acidulated malts. I geuss that this would qualify as neither decoction nor infusion. I've also decided to go for a 3 gal batch to elimate the hassle of using a lauter tun (I do small batches with strainers).

[ October 11, 2006, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: Aspera ]


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