Rocky Raccoon's Honey Lager

A light honey-flavored lager. The original recipe is from Charlie Papazian's home brew book. This version includes a few modifications by P.G. to improve the richness and sweetness.

This recipe produced a good tasting but rather dry beer due to the honey fermenting out. A nice variation would be to decrease the honey by 1/2-1 lb and cut the boiling hops in half (I'll try it sometime and if good, put the recipe here).

About two hours before you plan on making the beer, make a yeast starter. In a small pot, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil. Dissolve in about one tablespoon of malt extract and boil for a minute or two. Put on the lid, remove it from the heat, and let it cool. When room temparature, put in a mason jar and add the yeast. By the time you're done making the beer, your yeast should be very bubbly and active. When recipe calls for you to pitch the yeast, pour the contents of the jar into the fermenter. This gives the yeast a head start, which reduces the probability of any undesireable organisms contaminating your beer.

Crush, then boil the Crystal Malt for five minutes in two quarts of water, drain into boiling pot and sparge with another two quarts of water. Add the malt extract and the honey. Bring to a boil. Add 1/4 of the Boiling Hops.

After 15 minutes, add 1/2 of the boiling hops.

After 30 minutes, add the rest of the boiling hops and the Irish Moss. Boil for 13 more minutes.

Add the finishing hops. Boil for two more minutes. Cool and sparge into the fermenter, all enough water to make 5 gallons, and toss in the aromatic hops. Pitch the yeast when it's cooled to about 75 degrees.