I admit this is weird: A recipe confession...

I like all things beer including beer history.  Occasionally I find articles about breweries from a long time ago and the stories interest me.  Not far from me is the town of Freeport, Illinois which was apparently settled by Germans and was a big brewing center for about a century.  I used to have a t-shirt for something called Fritz Beer which was apparently brewed in Freeport from 1934 through 1937.  On the shirt it said, "A mellow German beer".  That says "Helles" to me but of course I can't know.  The story goes on that eventually large national breweries updated quickly, had better forms of refrigeration and distribution and small breweries usually fell apart or were absorbed by larger ones.  These stories are all over the place.  I have an old metal beer tray from a place called DICK'S BEER from Quincy.  Similar story... they brewed beer in that western Illinois town on the river for a long time until they vanished.  I envision the beers and what they may have been like.  In the case of Fritz, I often imagine how the beer may have been so yesterday I put together a recipe to make a mellow German beer.  Some of the stuff I found also mentioned that the beer was very "crisp" too.  I drew up 50% Pilsner, 50% Vienna and one addition of Perle hops to get to about 26-27 IBUs.  Mellow in the grist but crisp from a touch more hops.  I have 2124 running right now so I'll use that.  Simple and straightforward.  I'll call it Freeport Lager for no reason other than the story inspired it.  I'll make it when my Czech Pilsner is done.

Cheers Beerheads.