Surprised Frog Lager

Classification: pale lager, extract, honey

Source: Jacob Galley, (gal2@midway.uchicago.edu) Issue #831, 2/25/92

Two weeks later (last night) I compared a re-refrigerated finished-at- room-temperature bottle to one of the normal cold ones. The cold one had NO head, was still plenty sweet, mild carbonation, very distinct ginger character, and had a "final" specific gravity of 1013. The warm one had a killer head that headed down the side of the bottle and stuck to the glass. It was not at all sweet; the ginger apparently contributed a significant amount of bitterness, and was no longer very recognizable. It comes off as a rather hoppy pilsner "with a twist." This is my best beer yet.

Based on Charlie Papazian's "Rocky Raccoon."

Ingredients:

3.3 pounds, Munton & Fison extra light extract
~0.4 pounds (2/5 pound), Briess amber extract
1/2 pound, crystal malt (40 L.)
12 ounces, clover honey
1/2 cup, corn sugar
1 ounce, Cascade hop pellets (60 minute boil)
3 ounces, grated ginger root (15 minute boil)
1/3 licorice stick
Wyeast Pilsen liquid yeast

Procedure:

I measured the OG at 1026, although in hindsight I think the brew was still a little warm. . . . Let's call it 1035 or so.I put this in my fridge (42 F) on 9 December, in hopes that it would be finished by the time I got back from Xmas break. It certainly wasn't! On 16 January I measured the specific gravity at 1021, and it was still pretty sweet. On 8 February, though I knew that it was not done fermenting, I bottled with 1/2 cup corn sugar and put all the bottles back in my fridge. A day later, I decided to move two bottles into my pantry, to see if anything interesting would happen.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.035
F.G.: 1.013