My Bav Lager Is Dry As Hell

[vlbaby]

Hi guys,
I wondering if I might pick the a few brains about my last brew. I'm still doing kits at the moment, and the last one was a coopers bav lager. I brewed it up at 20 degc using 1.5kg light Malt Extract and the coopers yeast. It sat in the primary fermenter about 8 days, and about 7 in secondary at about 15degC, then i dropped the temp to 5deg for 2 days. The beer cleared up quite nicely so I kegged it for a couple of days, then i couldnt wait any longer so I tapped the keg.
The beer is definetely not undrinkable, but it's a lot dryer than anything i've done before.
I was wondering if this is due to me adding the light malt extract without boiling it, or could it be fermentation lenght is too long?
I'm trying to improve my technique by doing things a bit different to what the pack recommends so I'd appreciate any advice on improving my beer.

thanks

vlbaby

 

[Trough Lolly]

Vlbaby,
I've brewed a few of these...
Did you add any additional hops to the brew, to balance out the 1.5Kg of LME that you added in lieu of sugar or dextrose (which by the way was a good move)? The beer is still very young, or green, given that you have had it less than 3 weeks, so there is a lot of conditioning to go before you get the crisp lager taste that you want to have.
You didn't say anything about gravity - do you have an FG for this brew? If you made 23L of it, you should have an FG of about 1.011 or thereabouts, and most of the action in primary would have occurred in the first 3 to 5 days, using the rather vigourous Coopers yeast.
Boiling the LME with about 20g of Hallertau hops would have been a better move - tossing the Coopers Yeast into the boil in the last 5 so you had additional yeast nutrients. At least by not boiling the kit, you didn't lose any of the hop flavouring, bitterness or aroma from the hopped extract in the Coopers can...
Next time, grab a Wyeast liquid yeast smack pack and you'll be amazed at how it can transform an ordinary kit brew into a good beer. For a Bav Lager, you could use either Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) which is tolerant to slightly warmer than normal lagering temps or the 2124 Bohemian Lager strain that has superior attenuation than 2206. Hell, I've even got away with Saflager dry yeast, rehydrated in some warm water and tossed that into a kit brew after 30 mins!
Give the beer time to lager further in your keg, you will notice an improvement over the next few weeks.
The trick with making any lager is to give it plenty of time and have patience - you won't get great results by rushing this style of beer - it isn't exactly grain to brain in 24hrs stuff!
Cheers,
TL

Edit: I have a Bavarian Lager recipe on this website that uses the Coopers Bavarian Lager recipe - its not bad for a kit brew...Give it a shot of you like and tell me what you think?

 

[vlbaby]

thank TL. I will try to resist the urge and leave the keg to lager a bit longer. Impatience is my biggest problem i think, especially when I have only enough equipment to do one at a time.
Only thing I'm not sure of, is chucking the coopers yeast into the boil in the last 5 min. Wont this kill the yeast immediately?
I'll check out your recipe also.

thanks again
vlbaby

 

[Trough Lolly]

Only thing I'm not sure of, is chucking the coopers yeast into the boil in the last 5 min. Wont this kill the yeast immediately?

Exactly vlbaby!

Sorry, I should have been more specific - I keep the satchets of dry yeast as emergency backups for the Wyeast Liquid yeast and/or to use as nutrients in the boil. The yeast cells love a good chew on the boiled up ones!! :blink:
Cheers,
TL

 

[jgriffin]

Impatience is my biggest problem i think, especially when I have only enough equipment to do one at a time.

Go to bunnings and check out their jerry cans. Figure out which ones will fit in your fridge, and you can lager / cc multiple beers at once.
Two cubes will be the best $30 you can spend.