Mexican Cerveza

[paddys]

Hey Guys, i am in the process of brewing the mexican cerveza, have got it in the fermenter and placed it in the fridge brewing at 10 degrees, have used saf yeast, which i heard is a bottom feeding yeast ??? is that right or is that crap, cause i have no surface activity but heaps on the bottom of the fermenter, My question is am i doing it right or stuffed it again?, on the coopers website it stats use brewing enhancer 2, when do you add this to the brew?

Sorry for asking i have had a look at the old threads trying to find an answer but luck, as always your help is always appreicated,

thanks
Patrick

 

[brendo]

Hey Guys, i am in the process of brewing the mexican cerveza, have got it in the fermenter and placed it in the fridge brewing at 10 degrees, have used saf yeast, which i heard is a bottom feeding yeast ??? is that right or is that crap, cause i have no surface activity but heaps on the bottom of the fermenter, My question is am i doing it right or stuffed it again?, on the coopers website it stats use brewing enhancer 2, when do you add this to the brew?

Sorry for asking i have had a look at the old threads trying to find an answer but luck, as always your help is always appreicated,

thanks
Patrick

Hey Patrick,

A couple of answers for you...

1. firstly the brew enhancer 2 - this is extra sugar for the yeast to eat up mate, so it should already be in the brew. What did you do so far - just mix the can up with some water, or have you added some extra sugar/malt in there already? I think you will need to post your recipe and what you have done so far. If you have only mixed the can, you are going to end up with a pretty weak and watery beer (as opposed to most cervezas h34r: ). If this is the case, disolve the BE2 in some boiled water that has cooled and add it to the fermentor for the yeast to eat up.

2. Yeast issue... so can I assume that you are not using the kit yeast in this case? If so, was it a Safale or Saflager. If it was a Saflager, then the cooler temps are fine and it is def bottom fermenting. Most of the time I get krausen (foam on top) still with a lager yeast, but I have had occaisons where not much happened. The surest way to tell would be to take a hydrometer sample and check if it has dropped from your original gravity (assuming you took one).

Also, if you pitched cold (at 10 degrees), two packets would have been better to kick off the fermentation.

To help more, I think you need to post your recipe and the steps taken, along with gravity readings and how long it has been in the fermentor.

Let us know and we can help more...

Brendo

 

[Effect]

If it is a saf lager yeast, then it is lag time or under pitching (I would pitch two packets of dried lager yeast for a brew)

If it is a saf ale yeast, then it is too cold (simply let it warm up to 20 degrees and give if a bit of a shake to rouse the yeast back into suspension)

Cheers
Phil

PS: you should add the brewing enhancer 2 into the fermenter before you add the yeast. It should be all mixed in with the extract.

 

[chappo1970]

Hey Guys, i am in the process of brewing the mexican cerveza, have got it in the fermenter and placed it in the fridge brewing at 10 degrees, have used saf yeast, which i heard is a bottom feeding yeast ??? is that right or is that cr#p, cause i have no surface activity but heaps on the bottom of the fermenter, My question is am i doing it right or stuffed it again?, on the coopers website it stats use brewing enhancer 2, when do you add this to the brew?

Sorry for asking i have had a look at the old threads trying to find an answer but luck, as always your help is always appreicated,

thanks
Patrick

G'day Paddys
+1 to the other boys (damn shrek fingers!)

Safale or Saflager is my first question? If it is Saflager S-23 then yes it is a bottom feeder.
Yes your doing it right if you have used S-23 and well done BTW for m=not trying to cook it like others! :icon_cheers:

You have wayyyyy missed the boat to use BE2 now. BE2 is to be used at time of making up your wort. It substitutes the use of 1kg of dex and will give you a better beer with some body and head retention.

 

[Adamt]

What else did you put in the fermenter with the can and yeast? You're meant to mix the BE2 in with the wort before pitching yeast... If you haven't... your best bet would be to completely dissolve it in a few litres of hot water on the stove, and carefully add it to your fermenter without splashing in the most sanitary way possible.

Are you using a Saflager yeast? If you are your conditions are fine. Lager yeasts (which SafLAGER is) are bottom fermenting and ferment clean around 10C. Due to the lower temperature fermentation can take a couple of weeks. Lagers require patience!

 

[paddys]

Hey cheers guys, i followed the directions my local brew shop gave me, by boiling the hops and placing the grain in a bag and allowing to sit in boiling water then using this water form the hops and grain,i added 500g of Dex as well as the can of malt, i am pretty sure it was S-23, i have got airlock activity, i just thought it was a bit weird i had no Krausen ring around the top of it but heaps of activity on the bottom of the fermenter, i start to stress at the possability of wrecking beer, hehe, i cant remember what my hydro reading was i wrote it down on my fridge, will look when at home,

cheers for your input guys it wicked that i can get help from people who know,

Patrick

 

[jonocarroll]

placing the grain in a bag and allowing to sit in boiling water

Ouch. That was probably a bit hot for soaking the grain. Do you happen to know what type of grain it was? Depending on that, you should either have it in cold (room temp) water (cold-steep) or hot (60-70*C) water (hot-steep). Are you sure that boiling the grain was the advice given? Or to steep the grain, remove the bag, then boil the liquid?

Edit: Another thing - what type of bag did you use? Just curious.

 

[hoppinmad]

This is a link to a post on the Coopers Cerveza kit: linky

It should have everything you need to know about that particular kit

 

[chappo1970]

Hey cheers guys, i followed the directions my local brew shop gave me, by boiling the hops and placing the grain in a bag and allowing to sit in boiling water then using this water form the hops and grain,i added 500g of Dex as well as the can of malt, i am pretty sure it was S-23, i have got airlock activity, i just thought it was a bit weird i had no Krausen ring around the top of it but heaps of activity on the bottom of the fermenter, i start to stress at the possability of wrecking beer, hehe, i cant remember what my hydro reading was i wrote it down on my fridge, will look when at home,

cheers for your input guys it wicked that i can get help from people who know,

Patrick

Tell me you boiled the grain water Paddy?

Other than that you sound sweet! Have a sniff of the airlock it is smells like skunk fart your on the right track!

 

[paddys]

ohhhhh Crap, i didn't boil the grain water, and sorry i soak the grain in boiling water then used that water, i used a bag from the local brew shop like stocking thingo,

Whats gonna happen with the grain water if i have not boiled it, why can't the Brew shop give you proper instructions jezzzas,

 

[brendo]

ohhhhh Crap, i didn't boil the grain water, and sorry i soak the grain in boiling water then used that water, i used a bag from the local brew shop like stocking thingo,

Whats gonna happen with the grain water if i have not boiled it, why can't the Brew shop give you proper instructions jezzzas,

grain is home to lots of bugs, so a quick 15-20 min boil of steeped grain liquor is a bit of an insurance policy, helping to kill any potential nasties. It just means hat you run the risk of infection - just a risk, not a definite.

As others pointed out, you don't want to boil your grain... this risks extracting tannins from the husks, leaving you with an unpleasant astringency.

Nothing to be done this time around... but definite lessons for next time.

As to why your local homebrew shop can't give you proper instructions, like all things in life, there are good ones and there are bad ones.

Just keep asking plenty of questions and you will get the hang of it and before you know it, you will be able to confidently ignore the advice profferred at your particular shop B)

Brendo

 

[chappo1970]

ohhhhh Crap, i didn't boil the grain water, and sorry i soak the grain in boiling water then used that water, i used a bag from the local brew shop like stocking thingo,

Whats gonna happen with the grain water if i have not boiled it, why can't the Brew shop give you proper instructions jezzzas,

+1 Brendo (this is becoming a habit mate!)

OK! Don't panic!

I did EXACTLY the same thing from instructions given by my LHBS <_< . My brew turned out fine. The main problem with not boiling your grain water is there is a fair whack of nasties that like living on and around grain BUT I suspect because they were steeped in boiling water (which is what I did as well) that in fact killed any nasties that may have been lurking. You may get some astringent flavours as boiling temp is way too high as previously mentioned. Let it ferment out, take a hydro test sometime and taste how is going, if there are any funky tastes smells post up here. Otherwise bottle and enjoy! It will be a good beer.

 

[brendo]

+1 Brendo (this is becoming a habit mate!)

Stop stalking me Chappo :lol:

Brendo

 

[brettprevans]

playing devils advocate here. actaully im just been a prick. an infected tin of cerveza due to non boiling of grain i recon will taste just like it should. average!.

nah dont worry about it. your unlucky if its infected.

your LHBS instrutctions sound like they are from brewcraft. terrible bloody insturctions. may a well read the chinese version for all the good it does new brewers.

 

[chappo1970]

...an infected tin of cerveza due to non boiling of grain i recon will taste just like it should...

ROFL :lol: Thought the same thing but then thought better of it.

Lemon/lime in a there should mask any off flavours blandness thou?

 

[brettprevans]

in all fairness ive made a cerveza kit before. but i used a decent amount of specialty grains and a good bang of glacier hops (lemony taste). it came out suprising good for a lawnmower beer.

you can do lot with kits if you know what your doing. generally that translates into masking the crap flavours! my recipe is listed in the cerveza thread if your interested paddy.

 

[Katherine]

in all fairness ive made a cerveza kit before. but i used a decent amount of specialty grains and a good bang of glacier hops (lemony taste). it came out suprising good for a lawnmower beer.

you can do lot with kits if you know what your doing. generally that translates into masking the crap flavours! my recipe is listed in the cerveza thread if your interested paddy.

+ 1 ... I think it's a great kit best beer I ever made using a kit and from memory only put dex in it, maybe lme! along side chilli and kaffir lime leaf... The clarity of the beer was fantastic. Even AG'rs like it! It turned out better then my AG chilli and lime beer anyhow... I made two kit batches and they went pretty quickly... Still nearly have two boxes of the ag stuff in the shed.

 

[paddys]

Cheers guys thanks for all your comments, was thinking that myself to add lemon or lime to hide the taste, anyway will see how it goes, 2 time trying to brew so it probably be crap but again learning curve, I totally agree with you Citymorgue chinese instructions bloody bastards,

cheers again guys your help is very much appreicated,

Patrick

 

[chappo1970]

Mine turned out terrible :icon_vomit: I have to admit but then it was straight K&K with kit yeast and fermented at 24-26C. A couple Megaswill mates liked thou?

 

[Supra-Jim]

Admit it Chappo, you loved it, every last drop. You never shared it with anyone, and were often found up the back of your garage cradling an empty stubby of it, whispering 'my precious' :icon_drunk:

:icon_cheers: SJ