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DonC

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I admit to being a xxxx Gold drinker! For quite some time I have been trying to brew a mid strength lager without much success.

I have just cracked my 24th keg, and feel I am finally getting sort -of close.

Any opinions or suggestions on the following would be much appreciated!



Can Blue Mountain Lager, 600 Dextrose, 250 LDME, 200 Malto.

Boiled the kit yeast as food, and pitched S23 at 22degC, then lowered to 15degC.

After 8 days raised temp to 18degC, then to 22degC after 6 days, and kegged after another 4.

Fermenter still had signs of positive gas pressure, but I was out of patience!

SG 1037 FG 1015 (hydrometer not accurate)

Anyhow about 3 weeks after kegging tried it. Looks perfect, good head retention, slightly sweet taste, slightly bitter aftertaste, lacking something.
 
Try pitching at 12C. When fermentation shows signs of slowing start raising the temp by 1C per day until it is fully attenuated. If you have pitched a good amount of yeast you shouldn't end up with a sweet beer with a bitter after taste. It should be crisp and taste flawless
 
consider ditching the dextrose and take up the slack with ldme.
will give you better malt flavour/mouth feel and better head on beer.
 
Agree with this to a degree. More LDME is good but some dextrose is needed to thin out kit/extract based lagers esp IMO so wouldnt' take all the dextrose out. Fair bit of malto in there that you could ditch though in a lager especially (im not completely against it like some people but never use very much of it).

consider ditching the dextrose and take up the slack with ldme.
will give you better malt flavour/mouth feel and better head on beer.
 
I would ditch the maltodex and steep a couple hundred grams of carapils instead.

You could also try US05 @ 18deg for 2 weeks instead of S23.
 
have you tried 1.7Kg Morgans Queensland Gold.


Yes, used it for the first dozen brews - starting to think its not the can so much as what you put with it!

So many different suggestions I am still confused!
 
My 2c, I would go the Wyeast 2112. It's a great yeast that produces very good lager results at 14-18c in my experience. Super clear and very nice finish.

3 things to consider:

- It will take a little longer than S23.
- You will benefit from making a starter (this is good practice anyway so you can re-use the same pack)
- You will benefit from racking to secondary for a few days once primary fermentation has completed and drop your temp down to 2-4c if possible.

Hope this helps...
 
you say in your first post that youre getting close so thats a good thing, small changes will do.
to improve as pyrosx little post says xxxx=cluster, i love these hops, they will improve your brew.
you could try chucking say 12 grams cluster pellets in your fermenter after a week of fermenting,
maybe even a bit of hop tea with intial mixup. you could try halving dex to 300g, and upping ldme to 600g.
and if you want better you could move to allgrain brewing, beware - it can be addictive/expensive.
 
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