European lager's were only made possible by global exploration

Could it really be true that lagers would not have been possible without sailing voyages from half way around the globe?  Would we even have lagers today or would we all be brewing only ales and stouts.  Are there other yeast progeny yet to be discovered that could change the whole landscape of beer offerings?

The mystery of lager yeast has been revealed, read all about it here.

May Wheat

brewed: 5/15/2011

Batch I (5 gal carboy)
4.75 oz Carapils
4.125 oz C-20

Batch II (6 gal carboy)
4.5 oz Carapils
4.5 oz C-20


repitched yeast cake from last month  WPL 351 Bavarian Wheat Yeast



O.G.  10.56
secondary fermentation:
F.G.
kegged: 5/23/2011

results:

Getting ready for summer wheat

brewed: March 27, 2011
O.G.       1.058
secondary fermentation:
F.G.       
kegged: 
results:

4.25 oz Briess Carapils (Dextrin)
4.25 oz Briess Caramel 20
7.6 lbs Muntons Wheat LME
1 oz Perle (German)
Bavarian Weizen Ale Yeast White Labs WLP351


This is a fast and easy brew session.

A 20 minute steep of the 8.5 ounces of grains in 1 gal. of spring water at ~160 degrees

Dropped that into the boil pot and topped it very close to the top.  This was a little uncomfortable as I expected some boil over.  Added in the hops and malt then boosted the temp up to boiling.

We were lucky, constantly eying the temperature I had no boil overs but a steady 212 rolling for 50 minutes.

Cooled down to ~120 with the water chiller and topped off the fermenter with cold water.

Next time I will suggest straining the hops a bit better so things get into the fermenter without delay and cooling the wort down to 100 degrees or less since I had to wait on the temp to drop before pitching.  Since things went so smoothly and I still have almost 2 lbs of the grains on hand I will probably brew up several more batches of this throughout the summer.  Reusing the yeast cake should make this interesting and only about $25 per 5 gallon batch!

Ted assisting with the Chillin' process

Word of the Day - Gambrinus

This comes from Dictionary.com:

Word of the Day for Tuesday, December 28, 2010

gambrinus \gam-BRAHY-nuhs\, noun:

A mythical Flemish king, the reputed inventor of beer. 

I would have suspected them to capitalize the first letter.  I've heard of St. Arnold, but never Gambrinus, it's always fun to learn more beer trivia.

"It is also possible that the original Gambrinus was Duke John I of Brabant (1254-1298), who was called Jan Primus."

Could this be the origin of Primary Fermenter?