Brewing instructions:
Steep grains for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of water at 150-170F. Bring to a vigorous boil, then remove from heat and add extract malts, stirring to dissolve completely. Return to a boil. After a vigorous boil of 10 minutes, add Hallertauer hops (pellets), reduce heat to a moderate boil, and begin timing the 60-minute boil. 30 minutes into the boil, add the Northern Brewer hops (pellets). 59 minutes into the boil, add Tettnanger hops (pellets).
60 minutes into the boil, remove brew pot from heat. Place brew pot in ice bath and chill wort to 74° F. Add two gallons of cold water (about 70F) into primary and aerate this water (shake pail vigorously, make water splash and so on, for two minutes). After wort is chilled, siphon wort into primary, making sure end of siphon hose is a few inches above the water level (to create additional splashing/aeration of water/wort mixture). After siphoning is complete, add enough cold water (70F) to bring volume in primary to 5 gallons. Then, close up primary, plug airlock hole with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and aerate (shake) primary again. Reopen primary and take hydrometer reading and taste sample. Shake up vial of yeast (should be removed from refrigerator about 3 hours prior to this point) and pitch to wort. Close up primay again (may have to clean inside of lid if it has a lot of wort on it--rinse quickly with iodophor solution and dry with a paper towel). Aerate primary again (shake vigorously for two minutes). Ferment at ale temperatures (65-75F) in primary until bubbles in airlock slow to about 1-5 per minute, then rack to seconary (this should take about 4-6 days).
Lager the secondary around 40-45F for 2-3 weeks or longer. Bring secondary back up to fermentation temperature (room temp, around 68F) before priming for bottling. After bottling, bottle condition at room temperature for 2 weeks, then for at least one more week in the refrigerator (40-45F) before drinking.
Alternatively, you could condition in the secondary as you would any other ale, at room temperatures, for about another 2 weeks before bottling. Bottle condition at room temperature for 1 week, and then cold bottle condition for 2-4 weeks.
BREW NOTES: Tasted a bottle a week after bottling. Good! Sweet, slightly grainy, subtle but present hops. Boost choc. malt next time? Carbonation coming along fine!
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