Pre-Pohibition Lager Brew Day - It's So Easy!

End of the boil for my first lager.

After brewing three relatively massive beers recently, the mash-extract Organic Pre-Prohibition Lager kit from 7 Bridges felt so easy! The mini-mash of grains required a much smaller kettle, the boil was only 40 minutes instead of 60 minutes, and the snowy weather outside was perfect for chilling out the yeast starter and cooling down the boil kettle.

For krausening, I pulled a quart and a half of gyle just before adding the aroma hops. With temperatures hovering between 36º F and 40º F outside, I'll just keep the sanitized and partially filled growler in my garage till fermentation is complete.

My "cellar", the crawlspace beneath our house, seems to be at a stable 52º F this time of year, so I've placed the primary fermenter in there. I hope I wasn't too sloppy with pouring off the mini-wort from my starter yeast.  Palmer suggests watching the lager's primary fermentation every day, and moving to a warmer spot (58º F) for two days before beginning the cold lagering processes in the chest freezer. 

If the fermentation goes as planned, this batch will be ready to drink at the same time as my Mother's Day Organic Farmhouse Ale, first week of May.