Zulu's X-mas Lager

Classification: spiced lager, spiced ale, holiday beer, extract

Source: Mike Zulauf (zulauf@orbit.Colorado.EDU) Issue #743, 10/18/91

This recipe makes a golden, rather than dark, Christmas beer. With the proportions of hops and spices used, you get a complex mix of aromas, with none of them being too dominant. Other than being a lager and using various temperatures, this is a very easy brew to make. If anyone else tries it out, I'd be curious to hear the results.

Ingredients:

3.3 pound can, Munton & Fison Light Hopped Malt Syrup
2--3/4 pounds (approx.), light dry malt extract
2--1/2 pounds, light clover honey
1 pound, crystal malt
2 teaspoons, gypsum (soft water treatment)
2 ounces, Cascade hops (4.5% alpha)
1 ounce, Cascade hops
1/2 ounce, Cascade hops
1/2 ounce, Cascade hops
2 teaspoons, dried ground ginger
2 teaspoons, dried ground nutmeg
3 teaspoons, dried ground cinnamon
grated orange peel from 4 oranges
1/4 teaspoon, Irish Moss
3/4 cup, corn sugar for priming
M. eV. German Lager liquid culture in a 1 qt. starter

Procedure:

Steep crystal malt in brew pot. Remove grains before boil. Add extracts and honey and bring to a boil. Add 2 ounces Cascade at beginning of boil. Add ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, orange peel, and Irish moss in last 10 minutes. Add 1 ounce of Cascade hops two minutes later. Add 1/2 ounce Cascade in last 5 minutes and the last 1/2 ounce in the last 2 minutes.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.071
F.G.: 1.018
Primary Ferment: 12 days at 50 degrees
Secondary Ferment: 30 days at 40 degrees
Lager: 30 days at 30 degrees