Brewday - 28/08/09 -

[mysterio]

Cooked this up today, I suppose its a light lager with a bit more hops than your usual. I'm almost embarrassed to be telling you guys about it . First time i've ever used rice in a beer, I think. Brewed it for a party and so i've got a nice big pitch of yeast for an upcoming Marzen or maybe a pilsner. Yeast is the dried Weihenstephan lager, should be able to make a good assessment of it in a beer this light.

Type: All Grain
Date: 28/08/2009
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.70 kg Lager Malt (3.9 EBC) Grain 82.80 %
1.00 kg Rice, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 10.75 %
55.00 gm Liberty [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 13.6 IBU
35.00 gm Liberty [4.30 %] (1 min) Hops 0.4 IBU
0.60 kg Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 EBC) Sugar 6.45 %

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.95 %
Bitterness: 14.0 IBU
Est Color: 6.2 EBC

[Garth]

looks good mysty, never used rice myelf either, do you boil the rice first before mashing it?

I also have a lager planned for tomorrow, a black one, I think it's the same strain of yeast I'm using, it's the W34/70, is this the Weihenstephan?

how do you keep it cool? fridge or just a well chilled room?

[mysterio]

Nah the flaked stuff from the HB shop can just be thrown straight in the mash

Yeah the W34/70 is the Weihenstephan, 4 sachets for the full 12 (US) gallons. Supposed to be a good one. I keep it in an old fridge.

[Garth]

ah it's flaked, right

I reckoned 5 packets for a 60 litre batch, so I wasn't far off

I may have to scale this down as I can't be arsed with two separate fvs

What temperature are you fermenting at?

sorry for the questions, it's my first attempt at a lager

[mysterio]

Pitch in and ferment at 10C is the standard advice, ideally rehydrate the yeast too. When the ferment is dying down (maybe 10 days in), crank up the temp two or three degrees for a diacetyl rest. Then just treat it as normal.

[adm]

Nice work Mysti.....

Funny - this thread is going right where I'm thinking of for this weekend, which is to brew a 5G batch of lager ( I also have the 34/70 yeast in, but only 2 packs) and then reuse the yeast cake for a bigger batch once it's done.

I don't think rice is necessarily a BAD thing....I've had a fair few (mainly Asian) lagers that were very tasty and used lots of rice.

I read something the other day by someone from Fermentis? who was saying she had no clue why some micros kept buying new dried yeast for every batch. For me, if it's S04 or US05, then for the 99p, I might as well use a new pack, but even dried, the 34/70 is a bit more expensive AND you need twice as much, so it make perfect sense to reuse.

[196osh]

I was planning a lager at some point when I get temperature control. I may end up buying more Lager malt and making more lager, to reuse the yeast.

[mysterio]

Nice work Mysti.....

Funny - this thread is going right where I'm thinking of for this weekend, which is to brew a 5G batch of lager ( I also have the 34/70 yeast in, but only 2 packs) and then reuse the yeast cake for a bigger batch once it's done.

I don't think rice is necessarily a BAD thing....I've had a fair few (mainly Asian) lagers that were very tasty and used lots of rice.

I read something the other day by someone from Fermentis? who was saying she had no clue why some micros kept buying new dried yeast for every batch. For me, if it's S04 or US05, then for the 99p, I might as well use a new pack, but even dried, the 34/70 is a bit more expensive AND you need twice as much, so it make perfect sense to reuse.

The only problem for yeast re-use, from my point of view, is the timing. Once the yeast is harvested, you really only have a one or two week window in which to re-use it. And those one or two weeks is the time it's going to take (in my only fermentation fridge) for my lager to ferment. And since my fermentation fridge is also my keg fridge, where are my newly made kegs of lager going to go while my next batch is fermenting

Aside from that, harvested yeast is in great health (assuming you pitched enough in the first place). And you need huge pitches for lagers, especially higher gravity ones. So yeah it does make sense.

[adm]

I hear you on the fridge issue. I've got two dedicated ones now.....one keg fridge (actually a converted chest freezer) for beers that are being drunk, plus one "lager" fridge...but I think I really need 3!

Although the keg fridge is normally at 11C - which is a good temp for lager fermenting, the problem is, it's full of kegs of ale.

If the lager fridge is at the right temp to ferment a lager....then what do I do when I want to lager at 2C? That's my main problem today....although I figure if I do a 5G batch, then harvest the yeast for a 10G batch it won't hurt to leave the 5G batch in a secondary [EDIT: a separate secondary - i.e NOT mixed with the 10G batch...] with the 10G batch for an extra couple of weeks before bringing all of it up for a diacetyl rest, then going down to lagering temperatures.

Once the outside air temp drops down a bit further, I won't have this problem a I can just set my fermenting chamber to 10C or so, and leave the fridge at 2C.....but then I'll have a problem with fermenting ales at the same time....

I think the long term answer is a 3rd dedicated beer fridge. Then I can have the keg fridge, a fermenting fridge, and a lagering fridge. Job done. I've already prepped the missus and she's OK with it, but I just haven't been able to find another decent cheap fridge yet.

[paulcav]

I hear you on the fridge issue. I've got two dedicated ones now.....one keg fridge (actually a converted chest freezer) for beers that are being drunk, plus one "lager" fridge...but I think I really need 3!

Although the keg fridge is normally at 11C - which is a good temp for lager fermenting, the problem is, it's full of kegs of ale.

If the lager fridge is at the right temp to ferment a lager....then what do I do when I want to lager at 2C? That's my main problem today....although I figure if I do a 5G batch, then harvest the yeast for a 10G batch it won't hurt to leave the 5G batch in a secondary with the 10G batch for an extra couple of weeks before bringing all of it up for a diacetyl rest, then going down to lagering temperatures.

Once the outside air temp drops down a bit further, I won't have this problem a I can just set my fermenting chamber to 10C or so, and leave the fridge at 2C.....but then I'll have a problem with fermenting ales at the same time....

I think the long term answer is a 3rd dedicated beer fridge. Then I can have the keg fridge, a fermenting fridge, and a lagering fridge. Job done. I've already prepped the missus and she's OK with it, but I just haven't been able to find another decent cheap fridge yet.

This is exactly the same problem I've been mulling over the past few days and I don't think you can get away with less than three different fermenting/lagering chambers if you want to do ales at the same time, and then you have serving temp to boot!

[mysterio]

Guys, http://www.gumtree.com/

Nearly everyone has a chest freezer or two to give away.

[DarloDave]

Guys, http://www.gumtree.com/

Nearly everyone has a chest freezer or two to give away.

Not in middlesbrough, sadly.

What are Liberty like? I've got a pack waiting to be used.

[mysterio]

Really nice herbal/floral noble hop flavour, a bit like hallertau or tettnanger, amazing in lagers. Becoming one of my favourites

[booldawg]

Really nice herbal/floral noble hop flavour, a bit like hallertau or tettnanger, amazing in lagers. Becoming one of my favourites

Would it be at home in a wheat beer?

[Invalid Stout]

I think Liberty are actually quite lemony. I used too much in one beer and it ended up smelling like washing up liquid. Still one of my favourite hops though, but I haven't been able to recognise their Hallertauer inheritance.