California Common (For Intermediate Homebrewers) Recipe
- 5 pounds American 2-row malt, crushed
- 1.25 pounds Munich malt, crushed
- 1 pound Crystal 40L malt, crushed
- 2 ounces Chocolate malt, crushed
- 1 pound dry malt extract
- 0.75 ounces Northern Brewer hops - 60 minutes
- 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops - 30 minutes
- 0.75 ounces Northern Brewer hops - 10 minutes
- 1.5 Liter Starter of White Labs WLP 810 or Wyeast 2112
- Line the 7.5 gallon kettle with the mesh bag, fill with 2.5 gallons of tap water and bring to 162u0b0F. Remove from heat.
- Mash-in by slowly adding the 2-row, Munich, Crystal 40L and Chocolate malt into the water and inside the bag. Stir for 2 minutes to prevent balls of grain from clumping together, creating a consistent mash. The temperature should equalize to about 152u0b0F.
- Cover the mash, only uncovering to briefly stir every 20 minutes. In a separate pot, heat 3 more gallons of water to 190u0b0F.
- After 60 minutes, mash-out by carefully pouring the 190u0b0F water into the mash, stirring to equalize temperature to about 170u0b0F.
- Slowly raise the grain bag out of the liquid, allowing the wort to drain from the grain. Hold the grain bag above the kettle for 5 to 10 minutes as the wort drains. Add the 1 pound of dry malt extract and top the wort off with water to 6.5 gallons.
- Bring wort to a vigorous boil. When the boil begins, add 0.75 ounces Northern Brewer hops in a mesh bag.
- After boiling for 30 minutes, add 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops in a mesh bag.
- After boiling for 50 minutes, add 0.75 ounces Northern Brewer hops in a mesh bag.
- After total of 60 minutes of boil, remove from heat.
- : After wort cools below 180u0b0F everything that touches it should be sanitary, and exposure to open air should be limited as much as possible.
- Cool wort by placing pot in ice bath or by using a wort chiller until it is at 60u0b0F. Transfer to sanitized fermentor (either a carboy or a fermentation bucket).
- Use a sanitized auto-siphon racking cane to remove enough wort to take a gravity reading with your hydrometer. Make a note of this number, since you will be using it to calculate the actual alcohol content when it's done fermenting. The reading should be around 1.047. Cover fermentor with a sanitized stopper and airlock.
- Agitate vigorously for at least 5 minutes or aerate using pure oxygen for 1 minute. Add 1.5L starter of California Lager yeast.
- Ferment for at least 10 days at 60u0b0F
- Condition by allowing the beer to rest for 3 weeks at 50u0b0F.
- Bottle after conditioning is complete,
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Taken from www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/09/homebrewing-california-common-recipe.html (may not work)