One year on...

[Cummy]

Hi, I have been brewing for a year now. Starting with a starter kit, then a fridge, then glass bottles, then another other fermentor, another fridge, swing top bottles, another fridge, a chest freezer, kegs. Still only doing kits and bits and a couple of fresh wort kits. Fwk are a little pricey but are amazing and convenient. Very tempted to purchase a robobrew and start all grain except the whole time thing is holding me back Atm with 2 kids under 3.

Anyways, I have and can brew a stout I'm pleased with, a pale ale (coopers), a pacific ale (close to stone and wood but not as good as the fwk ones), a wheat beer I think I'm happy with (hoegarden type was a fail) and a few ciders (kit and juice) but I'm still struggling to get a good, crisp lager of any type with kits. Tried a xxxx gold, boags and three coronas.

Is it possible to get close to a corona with kits and bits. Any recipes, processes for a good lager using kits and bits would be appreciated. I have had three attempts fermenting at 12, s-23 yeast with d rest, using coopers can, experimenting with different hops/cans/malt/Dex and lagering from 6-8 weeks. What's your best corona recipe/ process?

 

[Topher]

Try a big pitch of yeast. If fermenting and pitching at 12c you are gonna need a big starter or multiple packs of yeast.
Also white labs sell the corona yeast.

 

[TheWiggman]

'Tasteless', crisp lagers - the final brewing frontier. Easy to knock them for being rubbish yet hard to make in practice. I think the Coopers lager tin is a good base for a crisp lager. If you're after a Corona I would use the following -

1 kg Coopers brewing sugar
Steep 30g Crystal hops
Reverse osmosis, filtered tank or store-bought water
WLP940 Mexican lager yeast with a big (2.5+l) starter
Ferment at 12°C or less

Other things which would help would be yeast nutrient and pure oxygen added to encourage healthy yeast growth at lower temps. Regarding the water, I've found if you do a lager well the minor flavours like chlorine in the town water supply are just detectable in the final product. Not good enough for a pale lager as far as I'm concerned. Seeing as you aren't doing AG, you don't have to worry about mineral content so if you can't get RO then store bought or tank water would be fine.

 

[Dan Pratt]

The main thing you will need is better water, the town water has to many minerals that are very noticeable with the style lager. Aim for rain water or RO as mentioned. The next stage is massively over pitch so make a lager and keep that entire yeast cake for the next batch and store it in the fridge. Prepare the wort, add oxygen and pitch cool, like 5c then let the temp raise to around 10c for ferment.

 

[BrosysBrews]

Agree with the above but I would use the coopers cerveza can instead of the lager can. I have used it before and would make a good base for this recipe. I made it with dextrose, kit yeast and kaffier lime leaves that had been boiled to kill off any bugs. Wasn't a bad beer other then way too many lime leaves that over powered it (I think I put in about 20 leaves, if I was to do it again I would use 1-2, amazing how much flavor they have)