Amateur's First Lager

[Milky11111]

Greetings again my brothers in brewing!
Lately I've been on a brewing hiatus due to my areas temperatures, hitting ~26*C during daytime and as low as -1*C overnight however I can still not shake the itch to brew more tasty beer. I'm toying with the of making my first lager, using my beer fridge (it DOES NOT have a temperature controller.) It's default temperature is around 10-14*C and can go as low as 4-6*C when turned down. I have read some Lager threads over time but I want to clarify some information. I'd hate to spend all the time a Lager takes to brew just to have a bad end result so I'm trying to go in well informed.

First is my recipe, I am a kit brewer but I do steep grains and use extracts from time to time. For this brew I was thinking just a can of Thomas Coopers Heritage Lager, but I'm unsure of my yeast strain, can anybody point me in the direction of a dependable lager yeast? I'll also steep around 250-300g of Crystal Malt and for hops probably just some Pride of Ringwood at 15, 5 and dry. Now PoR is fine but I'm open to suggestions for a different kind of hop, trying new flavours is always good fun.

Second my method, assuming my mash and boil goes good, topped it up to ~23L. First I activate the yeast in around ~30*C water (not sure of the ratio of yeast:water) do I then want to pitch it around 18*C then chuck it in the fridge, or cool the wort to ~13*C and pitch?

Assuming again the fermenting goes well :lol: , for the chill phase I could MAYBE talk my boss into letting me chill it at the work fridge, which sits around 3.5*C, would this be cold enough? If so, about a month in there or less? I see most people chill at around 0.5-1*C but I cannot get a chilling fridge that low.

One last thing. I have access to a secondary but have never racked to secondary when I brew my ales due to risk of infection. I do hear that it improves clarity though and clarity being a key characteristic of lager at some point should I rack it to a secondary?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this thread and help me. :icon_cheers:

 

[seemax]

For lagers you'll need about twice as much (2 dry packets). The kit yeast is probably an ale. I can recommend any of S23/S189/W4370.

Rehydrate your yeast for around 30mins (should be frothy), chill it down to same temp as your wort (ideally around 10C) and pitch it.

Leave it in primary for 3weeks and check SG. Once it's complete, chill in primary for a week or so to clear it up. Bottle or keg... then drink.

I wouldnt use that much crystal.... 100g maybe. Hops... something like saaz , perle... even cascade... anything but POR pellets!!

 

[kelbygreen]

well to start with I prob wouldnt use more then 200g of crystal as it is a lager. hops sound good you could also use something like czech saaz, If it was me id use saaz.

Is use S-23 or swiss lager yeast usally 10ml of water to 1g so about 120ml per pack, Pitching at 18 can be done but pitching closer to ferment temp is better, But remember dont dump the 30c reydrated yeast into 15c wort you will have to bring the yeast temp down slowly by adding little bits wort to the container to get temps down under 10c difference.

leave in primary vessel if you have no other reason to transfer and get it as cold as you can the colder the better but 3c will be fine you might find that your fridge gets colder then 4c mine ones get to about .5

Oh and for the sake of it buy a temp controller at like $30 delivered it will be the best investment you ever made.

 

[Milky11111]

Great advice thanks guys, couldn't brew to save my life without the people on this forum.