Luther's Lager Label

Luther's Lager was the first beer I ever made. It was mostly a practice beer. Using too little malt syrup and dry yeast, this beer was dry, cidery and thin. But the Label is cool, don't you think? The three Latin sayings around Luther's portrait are the mottos for the Reformation: "Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone." The bottom one is my addition, but to be correct, it should read, "sola cervacia" which is the correct Latin for "Beer alone" (as in "Beer alone--no wine coolers please").

Yes, this sounds blasphemous, but if you know anything about Luther, you'd know how much he liked a joke, as well as a beer! After a hard day of standing up for the Gospel, I'm sure Luther appreciated a good "beer alone" with his meal--water just doesn't taste as good.

My latest version of this beer:
Luther's Lager II

Type: All Grain; Amount: 3 gals.

GRAIN BILL:

• 3 lbs. of 2-row pale malt mashed for 1 1/2 hrs.
• 1 lb. dry malt extract

• 1 oz. Tettnang hops (4.7 AAUs) boiled for 60 min.
• 1/4 oz. Cascade hops boiled for 30 min.
• 1/4 oz. Tettnang hops finishing, last 10 min.

BREWING SPECIFICATIONS:

• Wyeast #2112 California Lager, 1oz. in 2 cup starter
• 3 days primary fermentation at 55 degrees
• ? days Secondary fermentation at 49 degrees
• Original Gravity=1.050
• Terminal Gravity=1.0?0
• Bottled on Nov. ?