First Larger -advice Needed

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L.X.

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Gday Brewers,
after brewing a half dozen or so Ales I have decided to try my hand at a true Lager. Being a newbie I thought Id run pass my ideas to see if you guys can point me in the right direction if my plans are a bit off.

I have now got my brew fridge under temperature control and have had it ''comisioned" over the last week or so to make sure the temperature is sitting in the right range, which it does. (about 12 degrees)

I have a can of coopers bavaria larger, a can of coopers light malt, some hersbrucker hops (pellets), a body brew bag (dextrose/maltodextrin), some LDM, and a packet of safelager yeast.

My plan was to boil 500 grams of the bodybrew with the can of coopers malt and maybe some ldm 100grams. With 20 grams of hops for 20mins then add 15 grams for one minute.

I was thinking of making it to 25 litres to lighten the body a bit but wasnt sure if is a good idea or not.

I know there is a few ideas on pitching temps of lagers and when to give it dieactel rest but was planning to pitch between 15-18 degrees and bring it back to room temp after a week in the primary.

I normally rack and cold condition my ales so I will be able to rack and Lager for 2 to 4 weeks without any problems. But Im not sure if i should rack it after dieactel rest or let it brew in the primary until its finished or nearly finished.

Well I think thats enough questions for now so thanks in advance.

Alex :beer:
 
Well, I would ditch the body brew for starters. If you can set your fridge so that it is at 8C than that will be better.

A can of Bav Lager and a can of liquid malt will make a beer of OG 1043-4. Boil your 500g LDME with the hops in 2L for 15 minutes and add.

The Saf 34/70 is a much better yeast than the saf23, rehydrate either at 30C.

Ferment untill the "krausen starts to fall" then take the fermenter out the fridge and let it warm up to ale temps and leave it there untill fermented out. Rack and lager at 0-3C for a month.

Enjoy

Jovial Monk
 
with a kit beer i would add the body boost, especially the the coopers kits, its not the best way to do it, but it will work, i dont think adding the extra 2 ltrs of water will lighten the brew the way you want, im assuming you mean lighten the color, well with an extract you have do just deal woith the darker lager color,


I would ferment in the fridge at 12 deg c with saflager, but if you can get it try a liquid bavarian yeast, I cant think of any off the top of my head, but im sure wyeast have a bavarian lager that likes 10-12 deg, ferment out then let sit at around 18 for a week, then lager as cold as you can manage, If your botteling then youll need to add some more yeast to get it going again and illd suggest bulk priming with light malt extract and some safale,

if your kegging, lager in the keg, and at the same time if you can get some co2 in there to carbonate as you go


Personally for me a good lager is light in color, big on body, and have a good amount of hops, hersbrucker hops are a good choice, I like hallertau hurbrucker combined with saaaz


But all in all your on the right track
 
plus of you want to do a partial mash i do have arecipe to go with that coops bav lager which was a nice drop and used the wyeast 2206 the bavaiarian lager yeast but hte 2124 would do well of the danish yeast
 
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