Suggestions

[ian_2005]

Guys,

Im just getting back into home brew, and so far have made a few Kit & Kilo beers that have been good, but now just want to step it up a knotch

So, I have the following ingredients at my disposal, and im after a few ideas


KIT - Blackrock Pilsner

HOPS - Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang

GRAIN - Munich, Amber

Yeast - Liquid Labs San Francisco Lager


Any Ideas on the best way to get this together ?? I want to steep the grain for 20 mins, add some hops at some point during, then combime as per normal.


I just wanted to get some thoughts before i make this weekends brew


Thanks in advance



Ian

 

[petesbrew]

Guys,

Im just getting back into home brew, and so far have made a few Kit & Kilo beers that have been good, but now just want to step it up a knotch

So, I have the following ingredients at my disposal, and im after a few ideas


KIT - Blackrock Pilsner

HOPS - Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang

GRAIN - Munich, Amber

Yeast - Liquid Labs San Francisco Lager


Any Ideas on the best way to get this together ?? I want to steep the grain for 20 mins, add some hops at some point during, then combime as per normal.


I just wanted to get some thoughts before i make this weekends brew


Thanks in advance



Ian

G'day Ian,
Not a huge lager expert here, but I'll ask for those who are.
What amounts have you got of each hop and grain?

If you're just steeping the grain for 20min, it will add some flavour, but not enough "stuff" to make it a full 5% beer.
Extremely rough guess here but You'll probably need about 2kg of the munich to bring it up to that.
If you can, grab 1kg LDME that will definitely help, then you'll only need, say 200ish grams of the munich to give it that little bit of character.
I'm Speaking as a lazy hypocrite here, make sure you boil the wort after rinsing the grain to boil off any bugs.

Hopswise - I'd say add the saaz last.
Have you made a yeast starter?


Cheers and good luck,
Pete

 

[enoch1973]

If I was going to do a kit beer (I've never done a Pilsner so far...) I would look at getting either 1kg of LDME or a 1.5kg tin of Pale LME.
I'd also look at steeping only about 200g - 500g of Grain. Depends what you're going for I guess.
I'm not sure about the bitterness of the Kit.
The all knowing "spreadsheet" available on the site here will probably know.
You'll probably want to do a 20 - 30 min boil with the hops combined with sugars from the grain.
Maybe a 30min boil for your bittering hop (probably the Saaz)
I'd add another hop when the boil finishes or in the last 5 minutes....
I'm not sure what size pot you have so that will effect how much LDME or Liquid malt you put in the boil to get the gravity right.
I haven't used Hallertau or Tettnang so someone else maybe able to comment on them...
The Saaz will go well with the Pilsner kit though. It's probably already bittered with it.

 

[mjfs]

i used the blackrock pils is a LCPA clone kit. It doesn't have a lot of bitterness. so if you you want to up the IBU boil some hops for at least 30mins.. i guess..maybe... im sure some guys on here with more experience cant add a more knowledgeable opinion.

 

[bum]

I reckon using that yeast with that kit throws much of the rule book out the window. Go your favourite hop or hop combination based on experience and hope for the best. Not suggesting in the slightest that it'll be a dud just wondering if there's much point hopping for a pilsner if you're using that, erm, different yeast.

(I'm assuming you'll be running it at steam(tm) beer temps here of course, if it will and and you want to run it at normal lager temps without detrimental results then please ignore)

 

[ian_2005]

Thanks for the feedback guys

I have 1kg of each of the grain, and 50g of the hops (100g of the saaz)

I will also be adding a dextrose/body booster/dex-malt mix into the pot, im just relying on the hops and grain for a bit more character

The Yeast is just one i have, it does not have to be used

 

[warra48]

Munich and Amber grains need to be milled and mashed. Just steeping for 20 minutes is not enough.

You need to use water at a ratio of about 3 litres to 1 kg grain. Get that mixture to a temperature of around 65 to 66C, and hold it steady for 45 to 60 minutes.
Drain the liquid, and then rinse (sparge) the grains with a similar amount of 80C or so water.
The liquid needs to be boiled for about an hour, which will give you plenty of time to add your additional hops.

With those grains you are, in fact, doing a partial grain brew.

As to quantities of grain and hops to use, I defer to others' better knowledge.

 

[Nick JD]

Yeast (IMHO) is the most important ingredient of a beer. As Bum said, you are brewing a "Steam Beer", or a "California Common" because that's what you have yeast for.

So, why not make a Steam Beer with it?

Somthing like an SF Anchor Clone...

1.5kg Coopers Unhopped Extract
1.0kg LDME
0.5kg Dextrose

250g of carared (or caraamber or similar)

In a 5L pot add 4L of water and steep your caramalt for 30 minutes. Add 200g of LDME. Bring to boil and add 40g of Northern Brewer hops. Put lid on and simmer for 60 minutes.

Pour this through a sieve into your fermenter on top of the rest of the ingredients - stir and top up to 24L with cold water. Add your steam beer yeast and ferment at 17-19C.

It's a great beer, totally underrated.

 

[ian_2005]

Does anyone think that this grain and hop mixture would work better with a Lager kit ?

Im probably going to use

400g Munich and 200g Amber Malt, Boiled for an hour, then strain into fermentor

1kg Dextrose

Pilsner or Lager kit


Hops added to the boil, TBC

Will use the Liquid lager yeast only if i end up using a lager kit, otherwise will probably just use the dry yeast with the pilsner kit


BTW i already have a 12litre pot that i will be using for the boil



Any Ideas, thanks for the replys so far


Ian