Colorado Kitchen Brew

Thanks to a gift from my wife, I'm finally able to lager beer.  Not being able to lager has meant that the closest I've ever gotten to making one has been to use the Anchor Steam yeast to make pseudo-lagers. With my new toy, that has finally changed. I brewed this beer back in January, figuring that would be the perfect time to make a Maibock for Spring. After primary fermentation, I'll be giving my beer 7 weeks for the lager yeast to do its thing. I'm very excited to see how this turns out. The five gallon brew is below. Grains: 6.5lbs Weyermann Pilsner 3.5lbs Briess Pilsen 2.5lbs Weyermann Light Munich Hops:  0.5oz Magnum (14.7% a.a.): 60 min 1oz Hallertauer (4.4% a.a.): 30 min Total Boil Time: 120 min Yeast: White Labs WLP833 - German Bock Lager 64oz Starter Hochkurz Double Decoction Mash Schedule: Maltose Rest: 144F for 30 min Decoction 1:      Heat 12 cups of thick mash to 162F and hold for 15 min      Heat Decoction to boiling and boil for 15 min       Return Deco

In late 2015, shortly after this blog went on its long hiatus, I brewed my first Kriek Lambic. Five years and a lot of waiting later, it's bottled and ready to drink.  Just being able to start this beer took awhile. To create my aged hops, I took an ounce of Willamette leaf hops from 2014 and stuck them in a warm furnace room for a year. That hopefully dried them out enough to provide little to no bitterness in my beer. The beer itself follows a pretty straightforward recipe. My grains are a 2:1 mix of Pils malt and Flaked Wheat. The hops are the aforementioned aged Willamette. Cherries are a mix of sweet and tart whole cherries from my local supermarket. Finally, the yeasts are Wyeast's Lambic Blend for fermentation, with Red Star's Premier Blanc champagne yeast added at bottling time.   Before I dive into how the beer came out, here's the full recipe for the five gallon brew. Grains: 6lbs Castle Pilsen  3lbs Briess Flaked Wheat Hops: 1oz Aged Willamette Leaf Hops: