My favorite lager yeast is 2112 from Wyeast. You probably know this yeast as California Steam beer yeast. You may have been told that it is a "hybrid" yeast. Some weird variety that is not really a lager and not really an ale. In truth it is in fact a strain of saccharomyces pastorianus, or lager yeast. It is just a lager yeast that was mutated many years ago to create a lager yeast that could produce lager characters at ale temperatures.
There are some issues with 2112. It is not a perfect panacea for people wanting to make lagers, without lagering equipment. The aa% (apparent attenuation) can be a little low. (But that is true for all lagers). Here is what I have found;
- You have to aerate the heck out of this.
- You have to pitch an adequate amount of yeast.
- Although it should work fine up to 70 F. (21 C) DON'T DO IT. It works fine at ale temperatures, not at room temperature. So use a wet t shirt (swamp cooler) , or put it in your fermentation chamber.
That being said. I just can't bring myself to throw away the MR BEER extract. I know it is pre-hopped, but... good barley gave their all for that extract. And now that coopers is making it, it is just Cooper's pre hopped extract. So I'm Going to do a 5 gallon partial mash in my electric turkey fryer. This beer isn't super hoppy, so I am going to chill it down with ICE. The idea here is to show MR BEER guys that they can make a great beer with the ingredients that came in the box, a 5 gallon fermenter, and less than $20.00 of additional ingredients.
ASSUMPTIONS (and this is where I need your input)
- MR BEER American Light is pre-hopped so that it will create about 12 IBUs in a 2.25 Gallon batch. So if i double that, I will get 24 IBUs in a 2.25 gallon batch. But I am making a 5 gallon batch. So that means that I have to account for this.
- 24 IBUs of SAAZ (which is what they use) is equivalent to 1.3 oz in 2.25 gallons.
- So 1.3 Gallons of Saaz in a 5.5 gallon recipe is 16 IBUs. Right in line for the style I am brewing. Premium American Lager.
- Am I thinking this through correctly? Both Beersmith and Brewtoad seem to think so, but... Come on guys did I miss anything here.
- I am assuming that I can just follow my normal partial mash process, but Mr. Beer kits are no boil so... Am I thinking Correctly
Let me know what you think. My recipe is here.
But it is basically
2 # of Pilsner
2 # of 2 row
.3 # of Carapils
.5 # of Corn Sugar
and 3.74 of MR BEER LME
Wyeast 2112 yeast cake.
But it is basically
2 # of Pilsner
2 # of 2 row
.3 # of Carapils
.5 # of Corn Sugar
and 3.74 of MR BEER LME
Wyeast 2112 yeast cake.
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