Knuttelbrau sees the lager picture

See what I did there?  Eh?

Anyways, yes, I have brewed my first lager.  It is dubbed "Dr. Knuttel's Lycanthropic Lager" (though I am neither a Doctor or a Lycanthrope).

Lagers, unfairly, have gotten a bad rap due to the saturation of the market (especially in the America) of the so-called Macro-lager -- a lighter take on the pilsner beers of Bohemia and, to a lesser extent, southern Germany.  America has its Budweiser, its Miller, its Coors -- and chances are wherever you are in the country, it would not be difficult to find at least two of the three, if not all of them.  Elsewhere there are still Molsons, Labatts, Heinekens, Stella Artoises, Mooseheads, Amstels -- but they're all pretty much variants on this macro-lager style.



Side note, I don't know if it's because it was just easier to find in State College, but I have found it difficult to find the Canadian variants (which I slightly prefer) recently.  I suspect it's due to the huge consolidation of the beer industry from the top -- there's pretty much four companies - AB Inbev, SABMiller, MolsonCoors, and Heineken International -- and the strong craft-brew scene in Philadelphia.  Bars have to choose between, I dunno, let's say the latest offering from Yards, or another macro-lager.  They're probably going to narrow it down to some combination of Bud, Miller, Coors, Yuengling, and one of the international ones -- Heineken and Stella just have more "exotic" European cache than Molson or Labatt, and the bar would probably have Bud or Coors so the overrall company still has a client.

Whatevs, wild speculation on my part.

Anyways, there is so much more the lager world has to offer than these pale imitations of pilsner.  Being from Philadelphia, I am very much aware of Yuengling's amber colored lager.  Most of Germany's beers are lagers, and the German immigrants of the Philadelphia area made it one of the first brewing centers of the new country, a lot of these beers lagers.  The "Pennsylvania Porter" style was so dubbed because it is done as a lager, as opposed to the more traditional ale -- Yuengling has always made its porter as such.

So yeah, I decided to make a homebrewed lager.  Besides, the craft-beer community is inundated with the diametric ale.  You know, sometimes it's just frustrating, having a beer community that strives to create the exact opposite of what the big guys make, so they all put out these super hoppy IPA's and these super alcoholic Imperial Stouts, when all you really wanted was a good brew.

I settled upon a recipe i created that should be somewhere between a Dunkel and a Schwarzbier, the two traditional black lagers of Bavaria.  I put Cascade hops in it, so it will have a somewhat American vibe to it.  These Cascades have a somewhat low AA% to them, so the bitterness shouldn't be overwhelming by any stretch.

I do not have the capabilities to do a lager at traditional temperatures, so I scoured the internet looking for information on how to ferment lagers at higher temperatures and found a yeast that should be able to do it.  I just have to let it age for a longer time than I would otherwise.  As it stands, i already have a four-stage fermentation cycle planned -- primary, secondary, bottle conditioning, and lagering.  Here lagering means like resting, or clearing.  You put it at really cold temperatures and let the yeast settle -- I can only do that when it is in bottles with what I have.  Alas, after two successful brews with little sediment on the bottom of the bottles, I will end up with one that may have quite a bit.

Such is life.

I may also try and harvest this yeast.  It looks to be a good "house" yeast for doing lagers, so I figure it would be good to keep around.  Also, if I have any really really long fermentations, lager yeasts are good for a second pitching in a bottle conditioning scenario.  Yeast is the most expensive ingredient in homebrewing, so I figure this should be the first place I try and recoup my losses.

As this will take me at least a month to finish, I may brew something else (something quick) in the meantime.  Poor me, I only have about 2.5-3 cases of homebrew on my person.  Man, having to drink beer is the worst!

-- Knuttel