Ok, yes, I am patting myself on the back……Translation……awesome! excellent beer Bishop, keep up the great work! The most difficult portion of this effort was the need for patience, allowing the beer to lager for 6 long and lonely weeks,……….just begging to be quaffed. Brew date was June 23, 2023, raised temperature to 68 degrees F on my mother’s birthday, June 30th, she would have been 94, for the diacetyl rest, what is that?…….”Because of the need for warmer temperatures to reabsorb the diacetyl, the diacetyl rest stage is mostly used when brewing lagers.” It was then cold crashed for several days to aid in clearing up the beer. It was kegged on July 8, 2023 and placed at 36 degrees into the kegerator and placed on CO2 for the +/- for 6 looooooong weeks needed to lager. On an additional note, in preparation for this beer I combined the zest of 4-5 limes into some 100 Proof vodka…….4 ounces of cheap vodka for about 3 weeks. The infused vodka was added when I kegged the beer.

Target date to drink was August 20, 2023, well it was going to be questionable if I could wait! The betting line was at least 100:1 against me…….and yes, I failed…..but it was for good reasons. I needed to pull a few samples about 4 weeks into the process to ensure any sediment that may have accumulated was pulled off and properly disposed of as well as checking the carbonation levels. Very little sediment was found and the disposal actually tasted pretty good, carbonation a bit light but not bad. At 5 weeks the sample was again pulled and properly disposed of. Much cleaner now and carbonation was on target. August 20th was approaching, Yee Haw.

I had my good buddy John over the join me for the summertime release of my Mexican Lager. The infused vodka was in just right amount, there is a hint of lime flavor but no indication of the presence of the little dab of spirits. If you folks have not been aware, August in Texas can be brutally hot. Summer of 2023 has literally kicked our butts around the block for 30 some odd days straight. My buddy John is a bit of a weather geek and for his Christmas/Birthday present several years ago, I bought him a weather station from Davis Instruments……The image below is from August 20th, the release date, and copied from his weather station. Needless to say we needed 2 1/2 to 3 healthy samples to adequately hydrate and give the beer a proper taste test. We both gave the beer high marks, Well surprise, surprise, surprise……Thank you Gomer Pyle USMC!

Will I brew another lager?…..Yes, but I prefer my ales…….I have 2 empty taps on my kegerator so I see at least one IPA – a SMaSH of some sort and probably a dank West Coast IPA in my near future. On a side note, a friend of my daughter’s was by recently and I broke out a 12 ounce sample of my bottled Russian Imperial Stout. He is a self professed fan of stouts. He and I split it. His opinion and mine were that the aging process is progressing nicely and it is very drinkable now…..I do have a number of 22 ounce bombers to share this fall and winter. It will only get better. Yum

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop