First lager recipe critique

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BeerandBratz

Member
Joined
26/8/17
Messages
9
Reaction score
3
Hi guys new to the forum so thanks for having me.
Have a pale ale on at the moment using morgans pacific pale ale and a tin of pale malt extract, going well but I'm already planning a lager and want to play around with it a bit. So I've come up with...

Blue mountain lager.

1kg body blend and 200g dextrose.

250g light crystal malt steeped for 20 mins with 20g por in 2Lwater with 1L sparge.

15g morgans premium lager yeast.

20g ella and 20g cascade dry hopped 4 days.

Spring water.

Pitch yeast at 18c and slowly chill to 10c for 4 days. Remove hop bag and keep at 10c until sg below 1010 and steady for 2 days. Bring up to 18c for 3 day diacetyl rest. Transfer to 2nd fv. Add finings and cc for 2 days at 2c. Then bottle and condition for four weeks.
Any suggestions or improvements?
 
Last edited:
If I'm not too late...

I'd ditch the crystal malt from it. Most lagers don't use it and it would probably make the beer too sweet anyway. Bring the temp down to 10C after about 18-20 hours after pitching the yeast.

Bring it up to 18C before it hits 1.010. Somewhere around 1.016-1.020 would be better. Dry hop at this point, or just a few days before the cold crash. Leave at 18C until a few days after it hits FG. Don't waste time transferring it to a second FV at this point, just leave it in the main one, drop the temp and add your finings once the beer has chilled. Let it sit cold for a week or two before bottling it.. 2 days will do **** all, it'll take 1 day just to get down there.
 
I'd largely agree with Rocker ^^.
However I can see why you want to add something to boost up the flavour and mouthfeel of the kit LME.
I'd be tempted to maybe use 150g carapils and, say, 50-100g light Crystal. The tiny bit of crystal should add a slight depth to the malt without being too obvious and the carapils should add a lot to the mouthfeel without adding much flavour.
Part of your problem is that most of the malts you would be advised to add (eg: Munich, biscuit, aromatic) need to be mashed. A mini mash isn't difficult but if you're not up for it, I reckon the carapils+light Crystal combo is better than straight Crystal or nothing.

Also, after your 20min steep strain out the grain from the liquid (& sparge), then boil the liquid for 20mins. I'd guess toss the PoR into the boiling liquid with 10-15mins to go in the boil.
That's a guess on the PoR though. I'd suggest finding ianh's spreadsheet in the K&K section and download it so you can check the bittering estimate. That spreadsheet (& it's BIAB equivalent) is excellent for designing recipes and checking your numbers.
 
I've done a few Lagers now and the best one to date for my taste was my most recent. I didn't do the diacetyl rest though.

TC 86 days Pilsner
1kg ldm
250g Carapils
250g Dextrose
20g Hallertau @ 10min
S34/70 and Kit lager yeast
23l
ABV 5%

11°c for 3 weeks and then cold crashed @ 1°c for 1 week.
 
So i ended up going with

1 tin bml
1kg body blend
250g carapils steeped
20g Por steeped
20g Cascade dry hopped
22g s23 rehydrated

Fv for 8 days at 12c till 1.020 then ramped up to 18c for 4 days. Secondary Cc to 1c for two weeks. Bottled and set at 24c for 2 1/2 weeks. Not too bad needs more conditioning prob another 3 weeks and will be perfect. So far, good body, nice mouthfeel, head retention is low hopefully it improves with time, por really comes through and the cascade gives it a pleasant albeit slightly green note. Will do again for sure maybe with a touch of honey and chilli.
 
20170930_182551.jpg
 
Hmm... Interesting. Planning on using Morgan's BML with Morgan's Extra Pale beer enhancer, 200-300g of carapils and Morgan's premium yeast. Did you use a hop tea with the PoR? Or steep it with the grain?

Also, what did you think of the 2 week lagering period in the secondary? I was under the assumption that you should do it for about 4-6 weeks at least, but if this beer ends up really good keep us updated. I remember the Blue Mountain Lager being a solid beer when I made it as my first beer in the Morgan's starter kit., and that was with the kit yeast at 22-24 degrees (kit temperature recommendations are always bizarre).
 
Made hop tea steeped for about 10 mins then.in the fridge for 20 (ground water comes out at 26c so have to reduce temp everywhere)then thrown into fv, bag and all until dry hopping cascade.
Next one i would definitely lager for 4 weeks min(impatience and stocks are pitiful).
It's improving quickly, had another earlier. Hoppiness is mellowing a lot, head retention needs more still though. So i would probably run 300 at least of carapils. Actually bugger it you've talked me into another one[emoji41][emoji41]
 
Back
Top