Tennents lager clone from a kit

[trustyrusty]

Hi there, I have a mate who likes his Tennents - he says he cannot find in a bottle shop (well not a regular supply), so I said I would try and make it. I have searched Tennents clone, but no good results - forum posts don't seem to be complete. Any ideas, how do you go about trying to work how what is in a brew. At the moment I have a Coopers lager with an English ale yeast. (Not an attempt but would be interesting to see how it comes out..)

Thanks
Russell

 

[wereprawn]

Apparently "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" has a TL clone in it. Can be had for less than $20 online.

 

[NewtownClown]

Firstly, any brewer that says "Tennent’s is best served Ice Cold", is telling you "Our beer is cheap crap and we'd rather you can't taste it, so please serve it at a temperature too cold for your palate".

Secondly, there is more info on the C&C Group website.

I would mini-mash 5-10% Munich to get the colour with an equal amount of flaked maize at 64-66C. Then add dextrose to get an OG of around 1.040.
(I don't think they use sugar but with an extract can you'd find it hard to get a low enough FG without it).

Hallertau and Saaz are used in a lot of British Lagers, so use one of those (or any noble hop) to get around 20 IBU (you may not need it with the hopped kit). NO flavour or aroma hops.

Ferment cold 10-11c with any clean lager yeast.

The real trick is to serve it ICE cold.........

 

[Hoppers]

I used to drink Tennants Pilsner back in the UK 20 years ago, used to love it

 

[NewtownClown]

...and 25 years ago I thought VB was a fine beer and Foster's was proof that Australia made the best beers in the world.
Wisdom comes with age...

 

[trustyrusty]

You know what the funny thing is that my mate, who had just come back from Scotland, said that one of the pubs he went to a lot of the locals (not Aussies) were drinking Fosters - in Scotland - it must be cheap there or they thought they where being international beer drinkers

 

[NewtownClown]

In the past 25 years I have lived in the UK, South Africa and China (amongst others), in all those countries Foster's was available and I believe still is. Clever marketing and the power of being part of a large company.

There are currently only 4 pubs/bars in Sydney that sell Foster's on tap - they get a lot of tourist trade

 

[Bribie G]

Tennents is an old lager brewery in Scotland, I used to drink it regularly despite the dodgy tins designs.



Basically it's a typical Pommy 4% lager brewed with UK Lager malt and I'd guess some maize (as used in Stella and Carling) and minimal euro hops.

You could have a fair crack at it using a Muntons lager kit. They pop up in a lot of LHBSs

I don't think you'd have much luck using a Coopers kit.

Even doing it all grain I'd be shaking in my boots, would look at using 50/50 BB and Weyermann malts, about 20% flaked maize or polenta and Hallertau to around 20 IBU with a lager yeast such as S-189 fermented at 12 degrees and lagered for a couple of weeks. I've read on a few brewery websites that they do a 52 degrees protein rest on the mainstream Pom lagers as well.

As for Fosters, it's made In the UK using all local ingredients but the Fosters B strain yeast, to 4% and it's actually quite a refreshing drop on tap over there, if anything better than the sad Fosters Draught that used to be on tap here till the 1990s. Most Poms still think it's the favourite Aussie beer.

Fosters have rebooted the brand with Fosters Classic, a 4% version and that's crap like you wouldn't believe.