Australian Standard Lager

[Bribie G]

But why on earth would you deliberately brew a carlton style lager! Australian commercial lagers are mud and should be avoided...why why why....it makes no sense

Compared to many International beers such as Carlsberg or Castle Lager of South Africa or Red Stripe or San Miguel or Brahma of Brazil or dare we say it Budweiser or Miller or Coors, Australian domestic lagers hold up very nicely indeed. They are heaps better than most domestic UK lagers - before emigrating to Australia I sampled a heap of them, from Cascade to Tooths (now deceased) to XXXX and found them to be very drinkable. Even Fosters. For every home brew zealot who reckons that beer has to be fiercely bitter, orange in colour and cloudy there are tens of thousands of people who just love their drop of Carlton or XXXX. As a previous poster said, to brew a commercial beer is actually one of the hardest things you can do as a home brewer. Personally I really like to slam down an icy Melbourne Bitter after a hot session on the beach. I love UK bitters, most German and Czech lagers and Melbourne Bitter. I don't like Hefes, Belgians, wheat beers, and a whole range of beers that many home brewers think are the bees knees. There was a micro in Brisbane that closed down a year or so ago, and a lot of people still mourn its passing. I went there a few times and found their beer, in my opinion, to be ugly tasting frozen cloudy concoctions with stupid names served in dimple mug glasses, although they were cheap enough so no harm done to the wallet. Give me a Carlton any day. All a matter of individual taste. :icon_cheers:

 

[rude]

here here you Aussie ledgend shite his a pomm

A melbourne bitter is allright mate cheers too ya

And all de best ta ya family

Over here mate its swan draught on tap they arent too bad but Im a miser I like me castle so0 I tend to stick at home with the family & drink my own mud

 

[Nick JD]

All these Aussie beers are lagers? Well I'll be...

 

[Bribie G]

All these Aussie beers are lagers? Well I'll be...

With the exception of Coopers (mostly) and Tooheys Old. Also some of the Little Creatures and James Squire beers which I suppose you could class as 'mega breweries' nowadays. Not sure about Carlton Black, I expect they crank it out using a lager yeast.

Lagers quickly became the norm with the widespread use of refrigeration at the brewery and at the pub. May have something to do with the climate perhaps :icon_drunk:

 

[Nick JD]

With the exception of Coopers (mostly) and Tooheys Old. Also some of the Little Creatures and James Squire beers which I suppose you could class as 'mega breweries' nowadays. Not sure about Carlton Black, I expect they crank it out using a lager yeast.

Lagers quickly became the norm with the widespread use of refrigeration at the brewery and at the pub. May have something to do with the climate perhaps :icon_drunk:

If I were running a megaswill company I'd be brewing beers that don't occupy the equipment for twice as long as others to make more money and a more competitive product. The same equipment could produce twice the ale in the same time as a lager ... and less cooling costs ... and nicer beer ... and if VB and XXXX are "lagers" why not make ales? No one will be the wiser.

It's a funny world.

 

[rude]

When you are on a good thing you stick to it $$$

Marketing I dont know how they do their research but the latest is low carb beers

They seem to smother the market so you cannot get a choice or they advertise so the lesser dont get a look in & people just go along with it.

If someone could brew a nice ale for a lot cheaper than the meggerswill then we might have a chance but from what Ive seen it cost more.

 

[BjornJ]

ok, will give it a try tomorrow.
My first lager, yeeeaaah!

pilsner/rice/POR and possibly some Saaz.
Will keep the sugar nearby if I chicken out


Bjorn

 

[manticle]

Will keep the chicken out


Bjorn

Best. Chicken is only good in ales and ciders.

 

[BjornJ]

hehe, took me a second to understand. Then I remembered the chicken carcass in cider thread, hehehe. I would have bet money on that not being true, a chicken carcass in the cider barrel.

had a smashing brew day on Saturday brewing on the balcony while drinking beer and reading a book. Then managed to spill some wort, break the hydrometer (as well as the glass measuring tube), burn a big hole in the grain bag, before started to fill the fermenter with chilled wort only to find I had not yet put the tap in, oopps.

Not a brew day to remember, in other words..
Ended up with 21 litres of 1.042 of very light, clear wort bubbling away in the fridge at 12 degrees as we type

thanks
Bjorn

 

[BjornJ]

Update:

This beer turned out a bit dissapointing!

I made my "Aussie Lager" or "Rice Lager" and it came out VERY thin in color, quite clear and not very bitter.
So pretty much spot on.

After two weeks in the fermenter and another week in the cube it was crash chilled for a week. Then isinglass, polyclar and then filtered with a 5 micron filter. (my first ever filtered beer).


After two weeks in the bottle I tried one to see how we were doing, and it was not very nice.
It was VERY light in color, very light in taste with low or no bittering, but then this cidery, sourey (if that is a word) taste?


Have put a couple of bottles in the fridge thinking of lagering it for some weeks and try again, but pretty disappointed if this is how it is turning out..


Bjorn

 

[Melthar]

If I were running a megaswill company I'd be brewing beers that don't occupy the equipment for twice as long as others to make more money and a more competitive product. The same equipment could produce twice the ale in the same time as a lager ... and less cooling costs ... and nicer beer ... and if VB and XXXX are "lagers" why not make ales? No one will be the wiser.

It's a funny world.

You can blame the Kiwis for lagers being the mainstay of the commercial breweries. It comes down to the "Continuous fermentation" process.

http://www.roadshow.org/index.php?option=c...=view&id=50