Now that I know that some of my previous beers should have been lagered, I will now attempt a lager.  Or several lagers.  The hardest part will be temperature control because I do not have a good space for it at this moment.  The second hardest part is that I've forgotten the exact recipe I used again.  Back on Sunday, I had decided to make this beer using:
1.4 lbs of Sorghum Syrup 60DE
2 oz(dry weight) Dextrose (Corn Sugar)
7 grams Saaz, Czech pellet hops 60 minutes
4 grams Saaz, Czech pellet hops 15 minutes
Saflager S-23 lager yeast.
1 gallon water

A second, subsequent beer that week uses:
approx 1.4 lbs Brown rice syrup
7g Saaz, Czech (60)
3g Saaz, Czech (15)
S-23
1 gallon of water

These were put into a mini refridgerator the week of the 20th and has been kept around 50 degrees F.   I thought about keeping them outside in a storage area where the water heater and furnace are located but I wasn't sure if I was getting an accurate temperature reading out there. It should be warmer but since I didn't know how warm and if my thermometer was reading correctly so I used the fridge.

Subsequent tests 3 months later showed that both had a fairly crisp taste and was clear, however the sorghum beer edged out over the lighter rice beer due to having more body and "malt" flavor.

As previously mentioned, I now know more than I knew about lagers.  I also know that everyone in my family except for me prefers lagers.  This makes it quite difficult to test out ales on my test subjects so it was either time to find new test subjects or try a different style of beer.  I'll settle for both and we'll see which finishes first. 

I've decided to create several batches using the same yeast and hops. I will be using the Saflager S-23 yeast, and the Chech Saaz pellet hops, which has a description of "very mild with pleasant hoppy notes, earthy, spicy, and herbal."  I really would prefer some better definitions to hops, but the main parts are the earthy, spicy and herbal.   The hops are given an alpha acid% of 4% (range of 3-4.5).

The first set of tests will be varying amounts of sugars.  This helps me find what body, color and alcohol content I'm looking for and will likely affect the taste as well since the three sugars I will try have different flavor properties.

Single Gallon tests. OG=1.050	Sorghum Extract 60DE percent	Brown Rice Syrup	Dextrose (Corn sugar)	Results
Test 001	100	0	0
Test 002	75	25	0
Test 003	75	0	25
Test 004	50	50	0
Test 005	50	25	25
Test 006	25	75	0
Test 007	25	50	25
Test 008	90	0	10

A lot of these, especially that with the dextrose, probably won't even be tested.  My first batch was 1.4 lbs sorghum and 2 oz dextrose before which is why I will likely approximate that again after trying a 100% sorghum batch.


The second set of tests will be hops tests.

Hops Test	AA%	Amount to reach about 24 IBU
Mount Hood	3-8%
Liberty	3-6%
Crystal	2-4.5%
Hallertauer	3.5-5.5%
Saaz (US)
Saaz (Czech)	4%	9g=23.69 IBU at 4%?

I forgot to take pictures again unfortunately, so you'll have to work with my descriptions. 

This past Saturday, I had heard that the a Michigan chestnut grower group was going to be at the farmer's market showing and selling Michigan chestnuts so I decided to brave the cold and visit.  It appears that they're only there twice a year.  It was pretty fun, learned about chestnuts since they have a few varieities.  They also had some roasted chestnuts, chestnut flour and sliced dried chestnuts.  They actually recommend grinding the sliced dried chestnuts and use it like a breading on chicken or fish.  It turns out that the people there also supply the Jolly Pumpkin brewery with chestnuts in order to brew the gluten free beer.  I picked up a package and am curious to do this too, but I will likely just eat them by either steaming or roasting the chestnuts, as opposed to trying to let enzymes break down the starch into sugars.  There seems to be a way to do so to create a beer, as referenced by many people and even http://www.chestnuttrails.com/ has a beer needing only amylase.  I still don't comprehend the chemistry and temperatures needed to do this as well as other grains but I'm still trying to look it up.  I've only been at this for a few months.

Julie, from Tastysansgluten, who as I mentioned before does the gluten free bakery picked up some chestnut flour and will likely be trying it out.  She was also selling holiday cookies which looked great.  While I had arrived rather late, there was still a good selection and I picked up a frosted snowflake cookie, a lemon glazed wreath, one of the soft and chewy and very chocolatey brownies using Mindo Chocolate as previously mentioned.

This is not to really detail the difference, or provide any comprehensive explanation.  This article is to show what I've learned and what I've tripped over in order to do so, and to provide information.  I strongly suggest some sites like http://www.howtobrew.com/ for John Palmer's site (reference Section 1, Chapter 10) and many other sites which I will eventually understand more about.

Well, it turns out, after further review of the recipe, that what I had done for beers 3-6 was use a lager yeast, rather than the rest of my earlier and later beers (so far) which have used ale yeasts.  The's the old saying about the difference between the yeast is a top ferment vs a bottom ferment, but there are many exceptions to it and doesn't really clarify the topic since in some ways, yeast is yeast. They all eat sugars and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The main difference that I now see, is that lager yeasts like a lower temperature than ale yeasts (45-55 vs 60-70 degrees F)and will (ideally) produce a cleaner, crisper tasting beer, regardless of the hops used.  The lager style of beer is also more of a light golden color, rather than ales which tend to be darker, ranging from a light brown down to a dark black.  Ales will get a lot of flavor from the sugars and the yeasts, while lagers generally don't get quite as much yeast flavor unless it's either specificially worked that way, or accidental.  My yeast flavors in 3-6 were accidental and the taste differences are probably due to temperature fluctuation.  My temperatures were really in the ale range, not the lager range and that's why I noticed odd flavors that I think reminded me of bubblegum or banana. 

There's a lot of history which is pretty interesting, about how beers were stored in cooler caves because of the too high temperatures outside, giving the name lager from the German word to store.  Makes me wonder if the colder temperature made everything settle so that the active yeast were at the bottom, rather than floating around, giving that whole top vs bottom difference.

There seems to be specific techniques when creating a lager, involving first the initial fermentation at a low temperature, where the temperature depends on the yeast strain.  For example, the Fermentis Saflager S-23 and W-34/70 recommends 9C-15C, ideally 12C.  This cooler temperature prevents the fruity esters from developing, and of course because I didn't do that, I did wind up getting these esters.  There is then the possibility of a short, slightly warmer temperature rest, called a diactyl rest.  Diactyls are produced from the yeasts during the fermentation and may give a buttery flavor to beer.  (See here for a description).  The yeast will eventually absorb this but higher temperatures allows the yeast to do this quicker.  Which is probably why I didn't taste or smell any of it. 
After the possible, but maybe not necessary diactyl rest, there's the lagering phase, where the beer gets to rest from one to two months at a low temperature.  John Palmer recommends that a 10 degree F difference is involved and that 45F would take a month while 35 would take 2 months.  This means that I can't really depend on my ambient temperature but need a fridge, or otherwise insulated container.

I just purchased some 5 gallon containers (kegs actually) in order to create larger batches of beer.  I'll still be using my single gallon jugs for most of my work, but when/if I find a recipe I or other like, I'll try making a larger batch. 

The kit came with a keg, a small 2.5 pound co2 tank and two lines with a regulator and connections.
The CO2 tank supplies the carbon dioxide which is used to a) carbonate the liquid, and/or b) create pressure to push the liquid out through a dispenser.  With a being slightly optional.  For instance, I could fill it with plain grape juice and use the CO2 to push plain grape juice out into cups from a dispenser end, or I could use water and some flavored syrup and make a soda by pressurizing the liquid with the CO2 then pushing it out.  The kegs were originally soda kegs.
The regulator is a really odd looking device which connects to the CO2 tank and regulates the pressure being sent from the tank to the keg.  Too little, and nothing happens, too much co2 and everything gets way too fizzy, or worse can kind of blow up.
Next is the keg, rather a soda keg.  This is connected to the regulator by a plastic tube and will contain a liquid beer, soda or water, which is then pressurized and/or pushed out by the incoming co2.  The liquid of course has to leave somewhere and will leave via the other opening of the keg where the other line goes with a valve at the end to open and close so that it will dispense the liquid.  It'd be bad to have all 5 gallons keep going without a way to stop it.

I'd have prefered a larger tank, and I should have seen about getting a larger one with the kit, but the discount was pretty decent due to the Black Friday tradition and I didn't think to message first for a custom kit.  It would have taken longer and I could have missed the deal anyways.  The place where I got my co2 tank filled does have refurbished tanks and it seems that it would be cost effective to get the largest one.  A 5 pound tank is 75, a 10 pound 85 and a 15 pound for 95 dollars.  The refills are 10, 12 and 14.50 respectively, meaning that for a 15 pound tank, it's less than a dollar a pound of co2.  Now my 2.5 tank cost me 8.25 to fill up, making it over 3 dollars a pound.  Given that it takes approximately (per some people's reviews) .35 pounds to push 5 gallons of beer out of a keg, then this gives me 8 kegs worth.  If I pressurize the beer using these kegs, it would be an additional .7 pounds, giving me only 4 kegs worth.  I have a feeling that I will be purchasing a 15-20 pound tank fairly soon.  Ideally I'll be creating the beer and letting it pressurize on it's own first.  After which I won't have to deal with it until I felt like bottling it from the keg. 

Normally, a person would dispense it into glasses from the keg but I don't think that I'll have a cold enough place for it, except for outside, until I have a fridge large enough to hold the keg tanks.  There are people who will use a freezer unit that they keep from totally freezing by using a power supply unit that will cease the power when it gets too cold, or start up the power when it gets too warm.

For the moment, all I plan on doing is carbonating water in 2 liter bottles so I can make my own sodas.  I've already done this once since getting the kit and I've been adding the carbonated water to a tart cherry juice concentrate.  Really tasty and not too sweet.

Now as for the first batch of beer, there were 4 variations of the same recipe.  Yet it seems that somehow they tasted different, either from the temperature, or the time, or something not apparent.
All 4 batches used sorghum syrup:
Batch code 3 used:
Saflager 34
1.4 pounds sorghum syrup
2 ounces(weight) dextrose (corn sugar)
one gallon of water 
Mount Hood hops 6 grams of hop pellets 30 minutes
9 grams of the same hops when the heat was turned off.

The second batch (Code 4) was the same but the hops used were: Roughly 9 and 7 grams
The third batch (code 5 and 6) used the same, except for the hops again.  1/2 ounce (weight) in the boil for 30-60 minutes, then another half of an ounce during coolingI also added 3 tablespoons of brown rice syrup solids and one tablespoon of corn sugar, this is to increase the sugar content and perhaps some flavor as well.  This batch was given the same yeast (from the same opened packet.)
Fifth and sixth batch
1/2 oz  Mt Hood hops (30)
1/2 oz. Mt Hood hops (flameout)
3 T dextrose
3 T brown rice syrup solids
in addition to the same as above.

So, with minor variations yet using the same amount of extract, all four batches should not have been widely different.  Yet somehow 3 and 6 came out better than 4 and 5, or so people said.  It makes sense that 3 and 4 would be less bitter due to the less hops, but for the variation to be that different is odd.

I'll try it again in a 5 gallon batch, however after some review of what I'll need, it seems that I'll be needing many more parts including:
A ball lock valve for the keg, which I will then connect to a hose then into a bucket of water so it can ferment without getting bacteria or air in.
A wort chiller (which is copper refridgeration tubing that will be immersed into the boiled sugar liquid and where when cold water is run through the tubing will chill the liquid) as well as sanitizers.  It also seems that I lost the nylon washer that's supposed to stop the CO2 from leaking out during the pressurizing process.  I picked up a nylon washer from home depot, but because the shape isn't the same, it doesn't work as well.
I'll also need cleaners and sanitizers as well as the brewing supplies themselves (sorghum syrup, hops, yeast).

Because this puts me over my current budget, I'll have to wait and pick these up at a later time.  It will cost me another 200, but it's a fun and useful hobby to have.  I get to make things and it gets to be used.