Coodgee
Well-Known Member
Ok guys, let me introduce myself. this is my first post. I'm a farily young bloke who has brewed a few bottles of beer, but has plenty of experience drinking the stuff.
I have done a few coopers lager brews with mixed results. I have a good mate who is a very experienced brewer, won a silver medal in a national comp for his pilsner. He has given me a wealth of information and has convinced me to purcharse some kegs, which I did do, at brewcraft chermside, about 5 days ago.
so I have my kegs, my CO2 bottle. a lagering fridge and a keg fridge that I will drill a hole in tomorrow.
I thought I would fill you all in on my plan for the first kegged brew and I would love to get some tips or feedback on what I can improve.
My first brew will be a Lager, in the vein of a Corona style. I feel it is a good place to start as I want to make a beer that has no resemblence to the nasty real ale coopers that I have brewed in the past. I will add hops and use a brewcraft malt/dextrose/corn syrup mix No. 20.
First I will sterilise with sodium metabisulphate. I thought I would just fill the fermenter to the brim with the right concentration in water and then add all the utensils and let it sit for an hour or so. the instructions are not very clear on whether to rinse in water or not. is this necessary? if someone could give me a good run down on sterilising with sodium metabisulphate, that would be cool!
So I got a brewcraft "mexican Cerveza" tin. I will add this to a couple of litres of boiling water. I will add my malt/ dextrose mixture and stir the **** out of it (so to speak).
I will fill to the 20L mark with spring water ( will get a water purifier eventually, but thought I would go with spring water for now). what water does everyone else use? is straight out of the tap ok?
Then I'll boil up some hops and throw that in. I have brewiser finnishing hops. can anyone vouch for this hops? is it fresh and suitable for my type of brew?
finally I will pitch my saflager yeast.
I will seal up and air lock.
I have my lagering fridge, but really it is just a big esky as it doesn't really work. so I will use half a dozen blocks of frozen ice (pre frozen in my deep freeze) for the cooling. I have already tested this and I can get 20L of water down to 12 degrees in about 20 hours. so if I change the bottles over every 24 hours, I should be able to keep the brew at a nice low temp.
I'll keep up the ice changes for about 2 weeks, that should be enough time for it to finnish fermenting eh? I may measure this with a hydrometre. what is the chance of infection here?
then I will transfer the beer into another sealed container and put it in the brew fridge at about 4 degrees C. leave it here for another week or so, then keg...
advise for kegging will be another 2 million word post so we will get to that later!!!
thanks for listening to me guys.. does this sound like a good procedure to you guys?
can you give me a few quick tips to help make sure this brew is great from the start?
I have done a few coopers lager brews with mixed results. I have a good mate who is a very experienced brewer, won a silver medal in a national comp for his pilsner. He has given me a wealth of information and has convinced me to purcharse some kegs, which I did do, at brewcraft chermside, about 5 days ago.
so I have my kegs, my CO2 bottle. a lagering fridge and a keg fridge that I will drill a hole in tomorrow.
I thought I would fill you all in on my plan for the first kegged brew and I would love to get some tips or feedback on what I can improve.
My first brew will be a Lager, in the vein of a Corona style. I feel it is a good place to start as I want to make a beer that has no resemblence to the nasty real ale coopers that I have brewed in the past. I will add hops and use a brewcraft malt/dextrose/corn syrup mix No. 20.
First I will sterilise with sodium metabisulphate. I thought I would just fill the fermenter to the brim with the right concentration in water and then add all the utensils and let it sit for an hour or so. the instructions are not very clear on whether to rinse in water or not. is this necessary? if someone could give me a good run down on sterilising with sodium metabisulphate, that would be cool!
So I got a brewcraft "mexican Cerveza" tin. I will add this to a couple of litres of boiling water. I will add my malt/ dextrose mixture and stir the **** out of it (so to speak).
I will fill to the 20L mark with spring water ( will get a water purifier eventually, but thought I would go with spring water for now). what water does everyone else use? is straight out of the tap ok?
Then I'll boil up some hops and throw that in. I have brewiser finnishing hops. can anyone vouch for this hops? is it fresh and suitable for my type of brew?
finally I will pitch my saflager yeast.
I will seal up and air lock.
I have my lagering fridge, but really it is just a big esky as it doesn't really work. so I will use half a dozen blocks of frozen ice (pre frozen in my deep freeze) for the cooling. I have already tested this and I can get 20L of water down to 12 degrees in about 20 hours. so if I change the bottles over every 24 hours, I should be able to keep the brew at a nice low temp.
I'll keep up the ice changes for about 2 weeks, that should be enough time for it to finnish fermenting eh? I may measure this with a hydrometre. what is the chance of infection here?
then I will transfer the beer into another sealed container and put it in the brew fridge at about 4 degrees C. leave it here for another week or so, then keg...
advise for kegging will be another 2 million word post so we will get to that later!!!
thanks for listening to me guys.. does this sound like a good procedure to you guys?
can you give me a few quick tips to help make sure this brew is great from the start?