First Kit - Bavarian Lager

[SeanAU]

Hi Everyone,

I'm going to have a go at a simple kit brew tomorrow, a Baravian Lager from a 3kg ESB kit.

Pretty simple, but it's been a couple of years since I made my first attempts at brewing and I think I got complicated too quickly, leading to some poor results. I'm going to start more slowly this time...

It's just going to be the 3kg kit, some (200g) steeped light pilsner malt and the included saflager yeast. No additional hops or anything at this stage.

I've attached what I think is a good brewday timetable; and just wondered if anyone could run their eyes over it and tell me if it looks OK or if there are any glaring problems.

I've had a good flick through the forums and the Palmer book, and the only change I think could be worth making is rehydrating the yeast, but I'm open to your collective wisdom.

Cheers,
Sean.

View attachment Brewday_Timetable.txt

 

[SeanAU]

Actually one other thing I'll probably change is rinsing the steeped grain per this article:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=80

 

[CDJ]

Besides the steeping of grains it looks OK. You can just pitch the dry yeast. I haven't noticed any difference yet from rehydrated yeast than bubbling starting sooner.

I would also lower the temp (10-12C).

 

[SeanAU]

Thanks CDJ. I'll rinse the grains, lower the brew temp to (say) 11 degrees and probably just sprinkle the yeast.

I also imagine that the saflager at 11 degrees will take a lot longer to ferment... I'll keep up with the gravity readings, but would 3-4 odd weeks in primary be around the ballpark?

 

[CDJ]

Yep. Usually when i've used the S23 is around 2-3 weeks ready. Then I cold condition (or lager) for at least a month (leave the brew in the fridge at around 0-2C).

 

[manticle]

Generally pilsner malt needs to be mashed.

200g is not a large amount so if you can maintain the temperature of the water/grain liquor between 60 and 70 for more than 20 minutes you will probably be ok. However trying to steep base malts may lead to excess starches in your beer so I'd recommend reading up a bit on mashing and steeping specialty grains.

Unless you're talking about cara-pils??

Essentially specialty grains have had their starches converted through a kilning process whereas base malts need to have their starches converted. The process is similar but temperature control is far more important with mashing as you need to activate certain enzymes that will conduct the conversion for you.

 

[SeanAU]

Generally pilsner malt needs to be mashed.

200g is not a large amount so if you can maintain the temperature of the water/grain liquor between 60 and 70 for more than 20 minutes you will probably be ok. However trying to steep base malts may lead to excess starches in your beer so I'd recommend reading up a bit on mashing and steeping specialty grains.

Unless you're talking about cara-pils??

Hi Manticle,
It's probably cara-pils, but can't be entirely sure.

It's this bag:
http://www.thebrewshop.com.au/grain-infusi...rain-p-717.html
It's an ESB bag, and on the ESB site the light grain pack says it's cara pils, but on the bag it says pilsner.
Either way; i'll give it a crack

Cheers,
Sean.