First Brew: Mangrove Jack's Blonde Lager

[Jonah1505]

Gday all,
I'm hopefully going to do my first brew over the weekend; Mangrove Jack's Blonde Lager.

I am reading Charlie Papzian's, Complete Joy of Home Brewing and he reccommends to boil for an hour, even though the are no instructions saying so. Is this step necessary? Does it improve the final product? I am happy to boil if it improves the final product.

I have some Saaz pellets which I plan ti steep and add aswell.

Have been advised to ferment at 18 degrees, rather than the 20-25 on the instructions

Any other advice is would be great.

Cheers!

 

[Richard williamson]

I've boiled my wart and not boiled and the difference is minimal. However boiling is better if your adding hops as you have more control over bitterness and hop flavour, even if you only boil for 15 minutes. If it's a pre hopped can don't boil that as will make existing hops bitter. The 2 best things to improve your brews are 1. Get a fermenting fridge and inkbird tempreture control and 2. Buy a good yeast ( not the one that comes with the cans ). Have fun buddy

 

[hoppy2B]

Hi Jonah,

You only really need to boil for an hour if you're doing a 60 minute hop addition, or brewing with all-grain light coloured malts. The last one is a bit technical to explain.

You should only really need to bring your wort up to 75 degree C to pasteurize it, drop your hop pellets in for a minute (loose is best) and then turn your burner off.

Boiling will actually reduce the amount of bitterness in the can, and can lead to a lower anticipated level of bitterness unless adding extra hops.

I recommend bringing all of the volume of water up to 75 degrees C to be safe.

I haven't read the book you are referring to. Take a look at John Palmer's free online book "How To Brew".

 

[Jonah1505]

Cheers Richard and hoppy. Thanks for the tips!

 

[TheBigD]

Boiling the goop is a waist of time IMO

First get yourself some starsan and google how to use it to sanitise

Rehydrate the tin yeast in 125ml water at 21C ( I just mix tap water and hot water from the kettle but some will tell you to cool boiled water)

Just mix as per to the instructions the goop and adjuncts.

add hop tea for flavour done in a plunger, 20 grams is good to start with in boiled water for 15mins plunge and add to your FV.

Top up with tap water this time of year but in summer I refrigerate about 15 litres a few days before.

Add the yeast and ferment in the 18-22 range.

I don't have much time for boils anymore, I can pump out the above in an hour which also includes cleaning and sanitising a keg, kegging the previous brew, cleaning and sanitising the FV ready for the fresh brew.