Youngs Lager kit with proper yeast

[crafty john]

I have a Youngs Lager kit left over from my one can kit days so I bought some Lager yeast to replace the ale yeast.

Can anyone tell me the best temperature and method to do this kit so I can get it to taste like Lager I will be adding LDME instead of sugar.

Cheers John

[dedken]

Funnily enough, I bought a tin of Youngs Lager yesterday and was planning to pitch lager yeast into it. The idea was to see if I could make the cheapest possible (£7.43 in Wilko's!) 'nice-tasting' lager (so I will be boiling up some saaz and hallertau as well).

I just did a Coopers Aussie with extra saaz and hallertau and used Saflager-S23. It fermented down from 1.055 to 1.010 in 12 days at 12-15C. I turned the temp up to 21C on the 13th day and then again to 23C for the last two days to try and achieve that magical diacetyl rest. I hope it works as it is not something I've tried to do before, but I can tell you that it smells absolutely glorious in the FV at the moment.

[HighHops]

This is the best time of year to make lager, so I bought a Brewbuddy lager from Wilko's last week and pitched a lager yeast (from a starter harvested from a bottle of Duvel). I would normally keep it at 12 -15C.

I turned the temp up to 21C on the 13th day and then again to 23C for the last two days to try and achieve that magical diacetyl rest.

But I am trying to get diacetyl rest too, so kept it at 12-15C until the SG had fallen by half the points I expected it to drop - 1042 down to 1024. Now I am slowly increasing the temperature up to 18C for the second half of the fermentation. I have never tried this before either, but this is the way I was told. Would be interested to know how it turns out dedken.

I love trying to harvest yeast from bottle conditioned beers. I've got a Coopers IPA in my second FV that's going strong using a starter made up from the sediment from a bottle of bluebird bitter (Supreme Champion Beer of Britain 1998) - I love it! Can't go to the lakes without stopping at the Bull in Conniston.

[dedken]

Do you know, I'm not even sure what I was told now! I read so much stuff that it all becomes a whirl, especially after a couple. Drinking homebrew and thinking about brewing simultaneously makes my brain do funny things. I definitely read somewhere to increase the temperature for the last few days of fermentation, but maybe I should have done so when there were still fermentables? I'm not sure now. My brew was definitely at FG when I started turning the temp up. I'll let you know how it goes - it is due for consumption on easter weekend as an aid to musicians trying to cut a spontaneous album.

[dedken]

Further to this post I went to my LHBS yesterday to get a few bits and pieces. Unfortunately they didn't have any Saflager-S23 they only had Youngs lager yeast. At 99p a sachet as opposed to nearly £3 for the saflager I was wondering about the quality of the yeast. Should I treat it the same way as the saflager or should I maybe double-pitch into my next lager??

[HighHops]

Should I treat it the same way as the saflager or should I maybe double-pitch into my next lager??

Dedken

If you were making a bitter or real ale it should be fine to just rehydrate the yeast or sprinkle it dry on the top of the wort. I normally make a starter three days before I start to make sure my bres get a good start. A tablespoon of DME in a pint of water is usually enough. Make sure you use a sterilised bottle and pitch when it's really got a good krausen. Lager needs a bigger starter because a lot of the yeast die or are sluggish at the lower temperatures. I've always got starters on the go, and for lagers I build them up adding a pint of malt extract to the starter every 3 days until I end up with half a gallon of yeasts worth. Then put it in the fridge for 24 hours, the yeast drops out, pour off the beer and pitch the slurry from the bottom.

Works for me. I don't usually pitch it all. Keep a bit for my next starter. Usually good for 6 or 7 generations of yeast. It's a bit of messin about, but keeps me off the streets and it's not very often I buy yeast.

[crafty john]

My lager has been fermenting for 9 days, sg is down to 1.015 so I have turned on my heat pad to get diacetyl rest, It will steadily raise the tamp over night and hopefully I will bottle next week.