Lager Advice

[theredone]

now that ive got tempmate underway im gunna go grab some bits and peices for a lager.
on hand i have some ldme, carapils, caramalt, TF light, and some darks that i wont bother to mention.
looking for a light coloured lager, either becks'ish or stella'ish, or maybe a bit of a stronger bock style or realy anything that would be taisty TBH. so im off to grab some halletuar and 2 tins of coops pale malt and go from there. also wondering if maybe tehre is a nice BE that is lager styled? if so i could pick that up instead of using LDME
so maybe something like
2 tins pale
.5-1kg ldme
.4 of some sort of cara flavoured grain(open to suggestions)
30-35g hal at 60
30g at 5

and either s-23 or w34/70(again, open to suggestions, but LHBS has no liquid yeast)

thanks guys
red

 

[theredone]

ok update time. i grabbed some caramunich from the LHBS also, although i asked for cara 1 he said its just caramunich, but looks very light anyway, alsmot like carapils. ive also grabbed some czech saaz.

now with a bit of research into german beers im liking the looks of some bocks ive come across, while i would like a stronger beer im not going to go for the dopple as it seems much darker, so maybe a helles instead. alot of extract recipes for helles call for munich and/or carapills(i have both) and the most common hops used seem to be halleteur, saaz, and pearl(i have halleteur and saaz). and trying to stick closer to the style ive come home with 34/70 yeast.

now time to play around in inah's spreadsheet for a bit and see what i come up with. will post recipe up so ppl can citique before i brew tonight

 

[theredone]

alright here goes
helles bock/maibock

2x tins coops pale
1kg ultrablend
.5kg LDME
.25 caramunich
.25 carapils
.25 TF light crystal

35g halletau @ 60min (5.8%)
15g halletau @ 5min (5.8%)
15g saaz @ 5min (3.3%)

saflager w34/70
est og/fg: 1.072/1.020
est ibu: 25.3
est alc: 7.2
est ebc 14.6

steep spec grain in 5-6ltrs of water for and hour at 68 degrees(or as best i can hold to that temp), quick sparge through of 500ml hot water then combin back into 11.5ltr pot. add half tin pale malt and proceed with hop schedule. mix the rest of fermentables in a little bit of hot water in fermenter while boiling. when boil done, tip into fermenter/top up to 23ltrs. rehydrate yeast in 500ml 20degree water, im then thinking of giving it a spoonfull of LDME to get it kicking for an hour or so, hopefully this will take a little strain off the yeast so it doesnt need to work so hard(produceing undesirable flavours) when i pitch. pitching temp will be 14, then drop and ferment at 10.

-now i know that might look like alot of spec grains but they are all light styled so im under the impression that more can be used, also the majority of recipes i was looking at use 2punds of spec grains(.9kg'ish)
-also the estimated final grave is a little high. should i sub half kg of malt for dex? i preffer maltier beers tbh and i think its more in style
-also should i bump ibu's up to around 30 to combat the high residual sweetness this beer will have?


cheers guys
red

 

[theredone]

ok well i went ahead with it last night anyways, pitched at 14degrees this morn and its now sitting at 10. og at 14degrees was 1.070. so that makes it about 1.071 or 2 at 20? bout right on the money anyways. beautifull caramel smell to it and a nice light looking colour, though a little cloudy atm. and i put .3kg carapils in, as that was the rest of the bag done. should be a cracker i hope, will post taisting notes in what? bout 6 weeks i guess

 

[jakub76]

Hey Red,
Seems like a very interesting recipe. Shame there's been no feedback.

I'm a big fan of hallertau and home made light lagers so I think you're definitely heading in the right direction. I reckon it'll be pretty sweet but I think you'll like that seeing as you favour malt fwd beers. With the amount of crystal in there I'm surprised it's not quite dark. I'm sure it'll come out a cracker. Keep in mind it's a pretty big beer and will benefit from age. Any lagers generally need about 10 weeks before they start to taste their best. Yours might need a little more time to settle the hot alcohol flavours and the ester production from pitching warm.
Even though you'll get plenty of brewers telling you 14 is fine for that dried yeast, your 10C ferment is far better. Generally the off flavours are produced during the initial yeast orgy while they multiply right at the beginning of fermentation - 2 or 3 days I guess. Warmer temps at the start will promote ester production, pitching at ferment temps or slightly lower will result in a cleaner beer, and a little worry during the 48 hour lag time
Please post your tasting notes when you're ready, I'd be mad keen to try this beer.
Best

 

[theredone]

Hey Red,
Seems like a very interesting recipe. Shame there's been no feedback.

I'm a big fan of hallertau and home made light lagers so I think you're definitely heading in the right direction. I reckon it'll be pretty sweet but I think you'll like that seeing as you favour malt fwd beers. With the amount of crystal in there I'm surprised it's not quite dark. I'm sure it'll come out a cracker. Keep in mind it's a pretty big beer and will benefit from age. Any lagers generally need about 10 weeks before they start to taste their best. Yours might need a little more time to settle the hot alcohol flavours and the ester production from pitching warm.
Even though you'll get plenty of brewers telling you 14 is fine for that dried yeast, your 10C ferment is far better. Generally the off flavours are produced during the initial yeast orgy while they multiply right at the beginning of fermentation - 2 or 3 days I guess. Warmer temps at the start will promote ester production, pitching at ferment temps or slightly lower will result in a cleaner beer, and a little worry during the 48 hour lag time
Please post your tasting notes when you're ready, I'd be mad keen to try this beer.
Best

ok cheers re: yeast pitching info. yeah as id said i did a bit of research b4 heading into this one and most of what i found was pitching temps ideal at 14. in my mind at the colder temps they would strugle to get off to a start meaning that, either the struggle would produce undesirable flavours, or the longer kick off time could produce less...... i wasnt too sure what was right. cheers for pointing me in the right direction, planning next lager now so will pitch at 10 next time, maybe with a nice belgian liquid yeast or something

thanks again
red

 

[theredone]

ok so ive been very patient with this one and bottled it 2 days ago. very glad i did wait the extra time cause even though its a darkish colour(more like a nice golden amber/dark gold colour) it is super clear. it was in primary for 3 weeks b4 i racked, did a d rest, then brought it down a degree a day till 0 then left it for...... well a long time, maybe 3 weeks more after lagering. but like i said very happy with results so far, the amount of trub left in the seconday is amazing, to think that would normally go into my beer. taiste wize i forgot to take hydro b4 i bulk primed(with 150g dex) so when i did take reading it sat at 1.022 and taisted a little on the sweet side, but im assuming that equates to 1.021 and alot less sweetness when the priming sugar is dissolved. but other than that it taisted good, maybe ever so slightly warm but that should be expected of a 7.8%ish beer. will leave it for a month b4 i try it and aim for about 2 in the bottle b4 i do the bulk of the dmg to it. will post again later

red

 

[theredone]

With the amount of crystal in there I'm surprised it's not quite dark.

yeah not quite a light as i would have liked but being the next brew after a double batch of american dark anything looks "light". i think light amber would be more appropriate for this one

down to 12ish tallies of my dark left, and a couple bottles of scotch so cant wait for this bad boy to come through