Gluten Free Lager

[coeliacsurvivor]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to brew with the Sroghum malt extract that I got from Grain and Grape in Melbourne (my brother went over for a holiday and brought it back to Auckland for me). My first ale looks really good and its almost ready to bottle, I'll post more about that later.

I thought that as the temperature in my shed is pretty steady around 5-11C at the moment I would try to brew a lager!

The recipe I have used is below, let me know what you think.

My problem is that it has not started fermenting yet. It has been in the shed for about 3 days now, there is no bubbling or other signs of activity. I read that if you are brewing below ~11C you should pitch more yeast (I only added one 11.5g pack of dry yeast), do you think this is the problem? If so could I add more yeast now?

There is quite a lot of sediment at the bottom of the fermenter could this be affecting the yeast?

It might get even colder out there in the middle of the night, should I put a warming plate under it to try and keep the temperature constant?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Colm


Ingredients.



2.8 kg Sorghum Malt

0.5Kg Honey (I used Pams clover honey)

28g Saaz Hops Bittering (60min)

15g Saaz Hops Flavouring (20min)

7g Saaz Hops Aroma (10min)

7g Saaz Hops Aroma (end of boil)

(I used Czech saaz hops from Nelson 4.4%AA)

5g Irish Moss

Fermentis Saflager S-23 yeast or Saflager W-34/70 (not sure which I threw the packet away)



In a large pot add approx 1kg Sorghum Liquid Extract and 8 litres of hot water. Mix well until the extract is totally dissolved. Bring this liquid to the boil. ( this takes a while and should start with nearly boiled water).






After the liquid has been boiling for a few minutes, add the 28g Saaz Hop Pellets (bittering hops) to the pot and boil for a further 60 minutes. Adding the hops to the boil will cause some foaming. Stir the pot if required. Start the 60 min timer from this addition of hops.



At 20 minutes from the end of boil, add 15g Cascade Hop Pellets (Flavour hops).



At 10 minutes from the end of boil, add 7g Cascade Hop Pellets (Aroma hops), and 1 teaspoon of Irish moss



After 60 minutes boiling, stop the boil and add the 7g Saaz Hop Pellets (Aroma Hops) to the pot. Also add the remaining extract to the pot and stir well until totally dissolved.

Add the honey and leave for 10 minutes to allow it to sterilise and melt.



Cool the hot liquid by placing the pot with the lid on in a sink of cold water for about 30 minutes.


Add the cooled wort and fridge cold water to fermenter. Top up to 22lt with more water and stir vigorously. Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the liquid and ferment at 4-11C.



I cooled it to ~13⁰C then pitched the yeast and put it outside in the shed.

 

[raven19]

My problem is that it has not started fermenting yet. It has been in the shed for about 3 days now, there is no bubbling or other signs of activity. I read that if you are brewing below ~11C you should pitch more yeast (I only added one 11.5g pack of dry yeast), do you think this is the problem? If so could I add more yeast now?

For a lager you want to be pitching a big active starter, prepare a starter of up to 2 - 4 L, once finished fermenting, pour off the beer ontop then pitch the yeasty trub into the fermentor.

Maybe see if anyone locally has a yeast cake you can grab some of?

That being said, fermentation should still occur if it is a lager yeast, if its an ale yeast it probably wont do anything... (too cold).

2c.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Lagers do tend to start a lot more slowly than ales - your pitch of 1 pack yeast sprinkled on the top is less than optimum... but assuming the yeast was in good shape, should still be enough to get you going.

Have a read of the "My Airlock isn't bubbling" article you can find here (in the articles section, beginners)

If you haven't, take a gravity reading and compare it to your starting gravity - lagers also often dont ferment very vigarously, so you might not be seeing many/any tell tale signs even if you don't rely on your airlock.

A gravity reading is the only sure way to tell - if you dont discover fermentation activity in the next 24 hts or so - I would consider buying a new pack of yeast, re-hydrating it (manufacturer's website will tell you how) and pitching that.

It'll be OK

Thirsty

 

[RdeVjun]

Hi coeliacsurvivor,
many thanks for your timely post (it validates my point beautifully in another thread). It should be an interesting lager, not that I'm a wizard on the subject by any stretch, but the temperatures are just right at the moment for lagers and I'm just starting some off myself.

So, when you made this batch up, did you measure the initial specific gravity (sometimes called OG- Original Gravity) with a hydrometer? If you have and now measure it again after three days, a fall in SG tells you the yeast has taken and you can just relax. If not, it could be that the single sachet is not quite enough and it would be better to either repitch, use two fresh sachets this time (note- check use by date and if your LHBS doesn't store them in a fridge, go find another HBS that does) or else do up a starter as Raven19 suggests.

I will usually measure OG for exactly this situation, its not that I want to work out abv% or attenuation, its because I want to know if the yeast has successfully inoculated the wort when I measure it a few days later. (I don't use an airlock, just clingfilm.) Sometimes its plainly obvious, others its not and the measurement confirms it unambigously.

(Beaten again... I do dilly dally sometimes! Thanks TB et al.)

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

Hi guys,

thanks for the quick replies.

I measured the OG at 1050 (learned my lesson from my first ever cider brew!!), so will check that when I get home tonight. I think the level of sediment in the fermenter might be above my tap though, which could be a problem.

I'll post again later when I've checked, fingers crossed.

Colm

 

[Thirsty Boy]

just tap a little more than you need for your sample and filter it through a bit of kitchen paper towel or even some toilet paper... just to get the chunks out.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Sediment higher than your tap?
Tip your fermenter back a couple of degrees from the front, and the sidement will sliiiiiiide away.

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

Right, I took two hydrometer readings, the first was 1042 the second was 1044, so it looks to me as though it is fermenting (OG=1050).

Is there any point in adding more yeast? or should I just wait and see how it goes.

Colm

 

[discoloop]

Drop in gravity means it's fermenting. no more yeast required!

 

[np1962]

Dropped 8 points in 3 days from a sprinkled dry yeast.... I'd say you are on your way.
You could take another sample in a couple of days but I would say all is good.
Does pay to make up a starter for lager yeasts and I would be doing this next time.
Good Luck
Cheers
Nige

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

OK, excellent.

Thirsty Boy how's your Gluten Free experimenting going?

Colm

 

[Thirsty Boy]

The first one I made, with the extragenous enzymes - is surprisingly good. It needed a few weeks to age and smooth out some. I had one bottle that was less than nice early on ... far too sour. But, the two I have had since have been less tart and less funny tasting. Its just a reasonable sort of summer ale/ blond ale now. I wouldn't rave about it if you handed me one, but I wouldn't send it back either.

The malt free "banana beer" or modified mbege ... is still in progress. It is most of the way through lautering (12 hours so far) and I will give it a final batch when I get home... should be ready to boil tomorrow. It seems to be working after a fashion.

TB

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

It's bubbling away nicely now. Guess I have to learn to be patient.

 

[RdeVjun]

It's bubbling away nicely now. Guess I have to learn to be patient.

Sweet, all's well that ends well. At least so far, its not in the keg/bottles yet, but its away nevertheless. Goodly, goodly.

Am quite surprised that no one said, "patience, grasshopper"! They're really slacking off around here... must be the cold weather.

:icon_cheers:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Sweet, all's well that ends well. At least so far, its not in the keg/bottles yet, but its away nevertheless. Goodly, goodly.

Am quite surprised that no one said, "patience, grasshopper"! They're really slacking off around here... must be the cold weather.

:icon_cheers:

It because he said it had been 3 days and he had checked for other signs of fermentation apart from the airlock -- it was kinda at the point where I would have been getting worried .... Just needed the gravity check to make sure things were going OK.

Sounds to me like that packet of yeast wasn't in great shape and the yeast had to do a fair bit of multiplying to get their numbers up - I wouldn't pin all my hopes on this being a great beer, it hasn't had the best start to its life... but you never know, sometimes its the ones where everything goes wrong that turn out to be fantastic -- and then you can never repeat it again.

Glad its kicked off for you

TB

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

Gravity down to 1030 and still bubbling nicely. There is a huge amount of trub at the bottom, so I might have to siphon this into my secondary from the top rather than using a hose on the tap.

Its a really nice golden colour and is making me thirsty just looking at it.

On another note I've just bottled my gluten free pale ale, so I might start a new topic about that.

Cheers

Colm

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Perhaps have a chat with MHB -- he was saying that there was a large amount of break/sediment/trub in the beers he was developing using the sorghum syrup. And that it just wouldn't settle properly.

He might have since come up with a solution?

It might be a case where for beers using this syrup - filtering is the only way to avoid a large loss to trub. I don't know, sorry.

Let us know how that beer turns out.

TB

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

I transferred it into a secondary fermenter on Saturday, OG 1015

I know you are supposed to keep it at ~4C for lagering, so I have it in a large plastic bag surrounded by frozen bottles of water that I'm replacing every 8-10 hours. It appears to be keeping it relatively cool.

Going to leave it there for a couple of weeks and then bottle it.

 

[coeliacsurvivor]

I bottled this on Saturday night, looks good and smells good.

I have a question, should I leave this at 4C now that I have bottled it? or will it be ok at room temp?


Cheers

 

[Pete2501]

Largering = stored in a cool place.

But I'm interested in this answer too. I wouldn't think the yeast could do its buisness at 4C.