Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 2.6% AA?

[Yuz]

Hi,

I bought Hallertau MF hops for both initial hopping in wort boil and later on dry hopping.
I've picked these going by the AA (3 to 5.5%) rating and the fact that I'm attempting a Lager (or sorts) as my first brew.
However, when I got them, they were marked as 2.6%. Sort of but am I meant to get another couple of packs to make up for the "lost" AA?

My basic 23L recipe is:

• 1.7kg Black Rock Amber LME
• 0.5kg Light Dry DME
• one pack of S-189
  
• Hops as mentioned

Aiming at low OG, Dark(ish) Lager with lowest alcohol possible.

TIA

 

[fungrel]

Lager ss your first brew? You'll have a lot more going on then thinking about dry hopping. To be honest I think you should skip dry hopping a lager with the hops that you have chosen and stick to dialling in the process. That way, if you make the process simple enough, you can pinpoint any elements that may have impacted on quality or flavour.

As for the low alpha hops, they're fine to use. Use more, no calculate the bitterness using a piece of recipe building software. I have 1.7% HM at home that I use.

 

[Mikeyr]

Ditto, type "home brew recipe builder" into google ..... go nuts there are plenty or just head over to www.beersmith.com

Lagers
1. Get your temp under control, i.e. dialled into you sweet spot (fermentation fridge or really cold spot in your garage)
2. You need two packs of dried yeast for most lagers, again plenty of online calc's Mr Malty has a good one
3. HM is a great hop, if you want to get more bitterness out of it. Try calculating a longer boil?

Have fun

 

[klangers]

Hallertau as a dry hop can introduce some grassiness. Not as bad as saaz, but I'd skip the dry hop to save more for the boil to compensate for the lower AA

 

[Danscraftbeer]

You could look at having Hallertau Blanc on hand as well. ~8%AA. (nice hop in my experience). To easily lift up the IBU's with the Hal Mit falling short.

 

[Adr_0]

Halletau MF is a great hop, don't dis it...

Using your recipe calculator, consider adding the 0.5kg of LME do a 5-10L pot and the bittering hops into this and boil it for 30-60min, then chuck in what you have left over once you take it off the heat. Mix everything else in, and...

...dechlorinate your water. And use 2 if not 3 packs of the yeast:
Yeast B cells/g
Safale K-97 14
Safale S-04 8
Safbrew T-58 18
Safbrew S-33 16
Saflager S-23 10
Saflager S-189 9

So for 23L of 1.030-1.035 (at a guess) it's still recommended to have 3 packs - but 2 as a minimum.

 

[Yuz]

Ok thanks, being my first brew I'm still fine tuning the recipe.

The reason for such low LME&DME is that I want to keep the alc as low as reasonable but still get fermentation going (aiming at 1.030)

• If I was to re-hydrate and pre-condition the S-189, would one 11.5g pack be enough for a 23L batch?
• And with Hallertau MF - I'm planning on boiling for 40min total, with 50g (not 25g - edited) pack @2.6% AA should give 12 IBU (close for a Lager); And dry hop later with 25g for flavouring.

I'm not expecting miracles, the initial brew is a learning exercise

 

[Mikeyr]

Just have a crack, personally i reckon using amber with low bitterness is a risk, I'd use more of the HM in the boil. Or rather than dry hop with it, chuck it in at the end of the "boil" for a 10 minutes, you will avoid any risk of grassiness from dry hop and extract a tiny bit more IBUs. I'd also pick up another pack of yeast.......

Something you probably already know, re hydrating isn't the same as a starter, you don;t get more cells, it just wakes them up giving a faster start (in theory) and I'm not going to kick off that debate .....

Oh and I like HM, just burnt out my last 250g on an Octorberfest Lager on Sunday

 

[Edd Mather 6]

Try adding an old/aged high alpha @ say 4-5% a/a with no - low aroma left as your primary bitterness hop charge, then add the low alpha Hallertau M/f as aroma 2nd charge for aroma , common practice for brewers of old to use this method to reduce costs while keeping aroma quality etc.

 

[Yuz]

Try adding an old/aged high alpha @ say 4-5% a/a with no - low aroma left as your primary bitterness hop charge, then add the low alpha Hallertau M/f as aroma 2nd charge for aroma , common practice for brewers of old to use this method to reduce costs while keeping aroma quality etc.

Thanks - all good, got some Super Pride @ 13.9% for bittering and use MF for flavouring at the end of boil (boiling light DME and a bit of LME).

 

[Jack of all biers]

Ok thanks, being my first brew I'm still fine tuning the recipe.

The reason for such low LME&DME is that I want to keep the alc as low as reasonable but still get fermentation going (aiming at 1.030)

• If I was to re-hydrate and pre-condition the S-189, would one 11.5g pack be enough for a 23L batch?

I'm not expecting miracles, the initial brew is a learning exercise

Go to http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html#" as has been pointed out already. A quick look there shows that 23L (6 US gallons) @ SG 1.030 for a Lager would require 13 gm dried yeast at 97% viability (which if you re-hydrate as per manufacturers instructions and the yeast packet is in date and has been stored cold, then you should have this % viability or more)*

That's 1.1 x 11.5gm packets. You can get away with one packet, especially if you oxygenate (using O2 not just aeration), pitch your yeast at say 20C and lower temp within 24hr or so to your desirded fermentation temp. If not then I'd join the others and recommend either two packets (for safety) or making up a starter to build yeast numbers.

If you want to use it as a learning exercise, you could just re-hydrate one pack and give it a crack. If the yeast are in date and stored correctly, I doubt anyone would be able to tell when drinking the resultant beer.

*dried yeast if stored correctly at 3C will lose about 4% viability per year. At 24C storage temps it loses about 20% viability per year. White/Zainasheff pg 160 Yeast, the practical guide to beer fermentation 2010

 

[Yuz]

Got a fresh pack of 15g S-189 (re-packed by vendor, not the original 11.5 pack which was due to expire in a couple of months anyway!).
Going to hydrate it as per instructions and pitch. I'm gradually getting to know the process and hardware, so we'll see how it goes