Japanese Lager

[l7edwards]

I'm going to put down a japanese style light bodied lager and any advice on the recipe would be great. I've got two versions

Coopers Cerveza
BE1
500g Rice Malt/Syrup
15g Saaz @15 min
10g Saaz @ 1
10g Hersbrucker @ 1

Saflager 34/70

OR

1.5kg LLME
500g LDME
500g Dextrose
500g Rice malt
15g Saaz @15
10g Saaz @ 1
10g Hersbrucker @ 1

Saflager 34/70



Any advice on the hop schedule would be great, im a complete newbie to this! Also wondering on the 500g rice malt - will this increase the alcohol drastically?

Cheers

 

[Steve Lacey]

Needs miso!

Well, actually, I'm not sure what you are going to do here with the two recipes. One recipe start with a hopped kit and the other is just all malt/adjuncts, but you have the same amount of hops for each. I guess the Cervesa kit is low on bitterness, so there may not be such a huge difference, but it will still be the more bitter of the two recipes. Normally there is no need to boil a kit, but to get that extra hop flavour in there it isn't a bad idea. You need a decent size pot to do it in though.

I think my advice, if you a complete newb, would be to stick to recipe 1, add another 250g to350 g of light dry malt for a bit more malt flavour to balance those extra hops you are adding. Reduce the boil to 10 minutes for the Saaz and all the malt (try to boil at least 10 L, preferably 15).

It might turn out to have a bit more hop flavour than your average can of Sapporo, but it will probably taste nicer. The rice malt won't increase the alcohol any more than adding sugar. Probably a little less.

Steve

 

[afromaiko]

You're on the right track with both of these, but don't get sucked into using dry enzyme.. it will taste foul, never again!!

I've made a Kirin clone a few times and it was delicious. The 500gm rice malt is an essential ingredient, and if you can find it, use 3kg of the Morgan's Extra Pale Unhopped Liquid Extract for your base extract instead of a prehopped style.

You'll also need to steep about 200gms of Carapils, and preferably do a full 1 hour boil with 60, 15 and 1 min hop additions.

Hallertau Hersbrucker and Saaz hops are the go, in about equal proportions.. but good luck finding Saaz at the moment, last time I looked there wasn't much about.