Hop Update!!

Here's a few shots of the hop plants. The Chinook is the healthiest with a bunch of beginning hop cones, followed by the cascade. I wish I could say the same for the Centennial, it just didn't grow very well. Chicago is a tough town.

Inaugural Lager

This is our first lager, from a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. I rigged up a fermentation chamber to maintain fermentation temps. Heres a shot of some of the sazz I'll be putting in. The recipe is as follows:

12 lbs german pils
.75 lbs cara pils
1 oz sazz 5.8% AA 60 min
2 oz sazz 3.2% AA 30 min
1 oz sazz 5.2% AA 10 min
1 oz sazz 5.2% AA 0 min
2 pks wyeast Budvar with a starter
1 wirlfloc tab at 15min

mash at 154 for 90 min with 1.3 qt per lb. ratio.
chill to 43 and pitch, then ramp up to 50 over the next two days. lager for 4 weeks before carbing. I'll raise it up a bit at the end to ensure all the diacetyl is cleaned up.