Fermentation Temps And Fresh Wort Kits

[scotty1975]

Hi All

I have a couple of questions I thought some of the experienced brewers on here would be able to help me with.

1. I recently brewed a MSB Two Row Lager using White Labs 830. I brewed it in my beer fridge on the lowest setting possible which meant it fermeted at about 8 degrees. The beer seems OK, it just took 3 weeks to reach FG. Is it OK to brew at lower temps with lager yeasts or will this affect the end result of the beer.

2.I have decided to try my first ESB Pilsner fresh wort kit. I have read on this forum that adding water to the fermenter, as instructed on the pack, is not recommended as the OG is only 1.050. Therefore , i am going to add extra LDME and increase the batch to 22 litres. I calculated in Beersmith that 800 gms LDME would make the OG about 1.047.
I am just a bit unsure how much hops to use to bring the bittereness back up to the level of Pilsner Urquell.

Beersmith uses several different methods of calculating IBU, but I think Rager is the most accurate, so using that method i came up with the following times

20gm Saaz 4.0% AA @ 60mins

15gm Saaz 4.0% AA @ 15mins

15gm Saaz 4.0% AA @ Flameout

Is this too much?


Thanks for your help, and all the great advice that is on this site.

Scotty

 

[Samwise Gamgee]

8C lager ferment should be fine. It is on the cooler end of the spectrum (8-12C) but there shouldn't be any probs.

 

[pint of lager]

If this is your first ESB freshwort kit, don't add any LME/DME to it. Leave it as all grain. The beer should be well balanced the way it is.

I think the instructions say top up to 20 litres and pitch yeast. It is up to you to decide how much water to add to gain your desired og. You could take an og from the drum, then decide how much top up water to use.

Use your LME and hops to make another beer in a separate fermenter rather than attempting to adjust the fresh wort kit.

One of the great advantages of the freshwort kits is that they are so easy to do. Pour into the fermenter, top up, add yeast and go.

Do the brew the easy way, see how you like it, then, next time you have a baseline to work out if you want to make adjustments.