All right – if you are going to be a master of lagers, you got to brew this one and get it right. You have to brew this one and work to make it come out flawlessly. Beyond the cleaning and sanitizing of your equipment, you have to make sure your fermentation is strong and complete. Here is the Standard American Lager recipe.

Boil size: 6 gallons
Batch size: 5 gallons

Ingredients:

7.5 lbs American 6-row malt
2 lbs Flaked Rice
0.5 oz Hallertauer Pellets 4.5% AA boiled for 60 minutes
1 whirlfloc tablet
Yeast: White Labs WLP840 American Lager

Instructions:

Use a yeast pitch calculator to determine how much yeast you will need to have a tremendous fermentation. If necessary, make a yeast starter if necessary a few days before you brew.

Mash malt and flaked rice for 60 minutes at 148 degrees F. You want to keep the temperature low so you can get as fermentable a wort as possible. The 6 row malt will be good to help the rice convert for you.
Boil for sixty minutes and add the hops at the beginning of the boil. Add the whirfloc tablet with 15 minutes left before the end of the boil. Cool your wort down to 48 degrees F after flameout. Transfer your wort to your fermentor and pitch your yeast. Let the beer warm up to 50 degrees F over a few days and hold it there for 2 weeks. Take a gravity reading to see if your final gravity has been reached. If it has, bring your beer up to room temperature for a few days as a diacetyl rest and also to make sure to get your beer to dry out as much as possible. Once all signs of fermentation have disappeared, lager the beer for at least 4 weeks to condition and clarify it. Slowly bring the beer down to near freezing temperatures and hold it there for the length of your lager period. Bottle or keg as usual.

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.007
Color: 2.90 °SRM
Bitterness: 11.6 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.2 %

Not sure I will be blown away by this beer, but it will be good to compare it to commercial examples. Again, the true reason to brew this beer to see how great your technique is.