What Have I Made?

[marcuste]

Hi all.

Have just been making kits using the coopers cans ad decided to do my first boil with hops and no dextrose. Just wondering what this style may be close to and what to expect from it.

Kit: Coopers Real Ale

Fermentables: 1.5kg light dry malt

Boil: 400g of light dry malt in 2L with 14g Palisade hops at 15 min, 14g Palisade at 5 mins

Yeast: Can't remember the name, but was 'Bavarian' style in a plastic packet that you activate by popping an inner sachet inside the packaging. I'll try to find the brand later today. I'm in Canada and the storeman said he gets the yeast from Oregon, USA.


Any comments would be great.

 

[felten]

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=132 that yeast?

Brewed at lager temps it might be some kind of an altbier or a dark American (Canadian) lager, or at ale temps maybe its a cal common!?

Either way, it sounds tasty. What temp did you ferment at?

 

[Barley Belly]

Did you boil the kit or just the LDM & hops?

 

[marcuste]

Boiled just the 400g LDM and Hops. 100g was used for the yeast propagator, and then the other 1kg was dissolved and added to the wort etc in the fermenter.

Just did some searching to double check the actual yeast. It was the Bavarian Lager 2206. I used that wyeast stuff, but the propagator one. It looks to be fermenting well at the moment, but at 19degC. Since it was the lager, will the brew be stuffed? I have no way of cooling it any further either. I told the guy I only wanted an ale yeast since I can't get the temps down to Lager temps without a lot of effort. All that was printed on the packet other than all the normal stuff was a stamp that said 2206 Bavarian. Nothing stating ale or lager. Looks like a stuff up on both our parts. Unfortunately here in a smaller size town in Canada he doesn't turn over a lot of decent product, just basic kits. Knows his stuff, just didn't know the product.

Anyway, what can I do to save it. It is now 4 days since brewing day and it hasn't dropped it's bubbles yet. Any tips or will it be 'ok'?

 

[petesbrew]

Boiled just the 400g LDM and Hops. 100g was used for the yeast propagator, and then the other 1kg was dissolved and added to the wort etc in the fermenter.

Just did some searching to double check the actual yeast. It was the Bavarian Lager 2206. I used that wyeast stuff, but the propagator one. It looks to be fermenting well at the moment, but at 19degC. Since it was the lager, will the brew be stuffed? I have no way of cooling it any further either. I told the guy I only wanted an ale yeast since I can't get the temps down to Lager temps without a lot of effort. All that was printed on the packet other than all the normal stuff was a stamp that said 2206 Bavarian. Nothing stating ale or lager. Looks like a stuff up on both our parts. Unfortunately here in a smaller size town in Canada he doesn't turn over a lot of decent product, just basic kits. Knows his stuff, just didn't know the product.

Anyway, what can I do to save it. It is now 4 days since brewing day and it hasn't dropped it's bubbles yet. Any tips or will it be 'ok'?

I'd suggest wrapping a towel round it, and keeping the towel wet by pouring chilled water over it before & after work. If you've got some freezer bricks, that'll help. It won't drop it too much but better than nothing.
Besides that, I'd let it do it's job, and consider it a lesson learnt.
Yeah, dark american lager. Sounds good though.

 

[felten]

Its a bit late for a temp drop to affect the fermentation flavour profile but it will probably turn out fine, just fruitier than a normal lager. California common is a style actually based around using a lager yeast at the colder side of ale temps.

It might throw up a bit of sulphur or something, but I would just let it finish and then cold condition/lager it for a while before serving.

 

[marcuste]

Its a bit late for a temp drop to affect the fermentation flavour profile but it will probably turn out fine, just fruitier than a normal lager. California common is a style actually based around using a lager yeast at the colder side of ale temps.

It might throw up a bit of sulphur or something, but I would just let it finish and then cold condition/lager it for a while before serving.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it isn't toast then. How do you mean lager or cold condition? And what do you mean about the sulphur? Sorry for the dumb questions, but completely new to Lagers and only done about 6 ale kits.

 

[petesbrew]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it isn't toast then. How do you mean lager or cold condition? And what do you mean about the sulphur? Sorry for the dumb questions, but completely new to Lagers and only done about 6 ale kits.

I've brewed with a WLP029 kolsch yeast before, which threw out heaps of sulphur fumes (rotten egg gas) while brewing. Amazingly none were in the bottles on tasting, and it was delicious.

On the other hand, the Coopers Bavarian Lager (discontinued) had lots of sulphur flavour in the beer. Gross.

 

[felten]

Cold conditioning is where after fermentation is complete, you drop the temp down to as close to 0c as you can get and leave it for a few days to a week; this helps drop out some of the proteins/tannins and also the yeast before bottling/kegging, which clears the beer up and improves its stability, it's most applicable with ales though.

As for lagering, its similar to the above but more long term, the lager yeasts continue to work at the low temperatures and will clean up some of the less desirable compounds as well as the above proteins and so on dropping out.

I'm not the best authority on either TBH on process or the mechanics of it, but I believe for lagers that most people will cold condition for a week, bottle and then leave it for a few weeks to carbonate, and then store the bottles around fridge temps (4c) for a month or more before consuming. Here is a good read http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers

Maybe someone else can give you a better idea of the above.

 

[marcuste]

Well as you guys appreciate updates on these things, I thought I'd let you know how she turned out.

VERY DRINKABLE. I opened a bottle a 3 weeks after bottling which turned out to be somewhat ok. I have just cracked the second bottle after a bottling date of 25/6 and find it by far the best beer I have brewed yet. The hops has a great aroma to it, and a nice bitterness too. It does taste a little fruity as someone above said it might, but certainly no weird after taste that I have been getting from all the other coopers kits I have used. Might have been the yeast, or the fact that it's an all malt brew.

I didn't even cold condition it. I Just let it stand undisturbed around the 20-22deg C mark. Great head and head retention too. I'm really happy with the end result.