My very first lager.  Attended a Craft’d event last week at Castle Island where Andy the head brewer shared a lager they call Tiny Lights.  It was truly amazing and inspired me to give a larger a try.  As well I needed to brew something that could be a crowd pleaser for a up coming birthday party.

Grain Bill

15lbs 8ozs Pilsen 2 Row (German)
2lb 8ozs Flaked Rice
8ozs Acid Malt
.5oz Huell Melon @ 10mins (plan was 1.5ozs, see notes)
.5oz Mosaic @ 10mins (plan was 1.5ozs, see notes)
2.5oz Huell Melon dry hopped (plan was 2ozs, see notes)
2.5oz Mosaic dry hopped (plan was 2ozs, see notes)
Mash temp 105F for 30 mins, 145F for 15mins, 155F for 35mins and then raise to 170 and sparge
4 packs of Saflager w-34/70

Water

Water adjustment of 1g gypsum and 2g epsom salt to bring the profile to calcium=10, magnesium=4, sodium=38, chloride=39, sulfate=30 (not the perfect water as the sodium and chloride are higher than the style calls for, but I’d need to start with some RO water which I currently do not have).

Brewing Notes

Started at 7:00 which is much later than usual.  But the lower initial mash temp got us going very fast and I had filled the HLT the night before to let the water out gas.

Pre-boil SG = 1.04 on a target of 1.036, Post-boil SG = 1.045 on a target of 1.042.  I ran the recipe calculation at 68% BH Efficiency so based on the SG I did better.

Fermented at 58F and we hit 1.014 in a few days so it went pretty fast.  Dry hopped with 2.5ozs of Huell Melon and Mosaic at 1.014.  When I when to dry hop I couldn’t understand why I had an extra once of each hop.  This is when I realized I messed up on the boil hops.  The IBUs will drop from 20 to around 6.

Label