Lager Brew Day

[DC]

Hey all, decided to do another Lager to use up the last of my grain which jas been sitting for a while. Decided to do the mash on Friday afternoon and boil first thing on Saturday morning seeing as I had some spare time on Friday afternoon

Recipe
4.5kg Golden Promise
400g Carapils Malt
54g Saaz Hops (60 Min Boil)
Saflager S23 yeast

Decided to use my old plastic HLT as there wasn't a great deal of mash water



Usual grain shot


First runnings with grain as usual


Cleared nicely after a bit of recirculating


First runnings looking good for Lager


Spent grain


Left the runnings in my brewing fridge overnight and both lots were still at around 40 Degrees on Saturday morning so only had to heat for about 30 mins to hit boiling


Here comes the Hot Break !!


Finally managed to get an extra camlock fitting and extra silicone tubing from Mr Lard to make a shorter transfer hose from kettle to plate chiller


A nice boil with hops added


Sterilizing plate chiller prior to cooling


Plate chiller works a treat


Ended up at 1042 which will make this a decent Lager


All tucked up ready for bed

If this turns out as good as the previous 5 batches of Lager with the same recipe I will be chuffed

Cheers DC

[D4nny74]

On my list to do

[DC]

Hey all, just checked on Lager and its down to 1012 for the 3rd consecutive day but still fermenting so decided to ramp the temp up to18 degrees for a few days to do a Diaceytl rest then Crash Cool down to around 1 degree and lager for a few weeks hoping to get either another 10 Gallon batch of lager on to be ready for Santa coming or 2 different brews ready in time for Santa !

Cheers DC

[DC]

Hi all, Ramped the temperature up to 18 Degrees C for 3 or 4 days to finish off the fermenting and do a Diacetyl rest and the lager is now sitting at 1010 so it is now being crash cooled to 2 Degrees C for a couple of days prior to being transferred to a secondary FV. Still debating whether to lager this batch for a month or so or bottle it and bung another 10 gallon of Lager on and lager the 10 gallons for a month or so Decisions Decisions

Cheers DC

[D4nny74]

I need to put a lager on but I have a list as long as my arm

[sbond10]

Dc I always thought plate chillers require a pump to get the wort thru The chiller ?

[DC]

Hey sbond10, So did I at one point but but mine seems work ok just using "Gravity" the plan was to have a stainless steel "Y" strainer fitted to my tap on boiler then pump wort to plate chiller. But the first time I used the "Y" strainer it got clogged up and I had to remove it and forgot to put the pump back on and just used the drop from boiler to plate chiller under bench and it seems to work ok ! so I decided not to use the pump in case it got blocked by hops or cold break material and so far its working ok

Cheers DC

[sbond10]

Does that chill far enough down in ons pass

[DC]

Yeah, it gets the temp too low if I alter the flow of wort & water so it takes a bit fiddling to get the desired output temperature ! But it works great on the first pass no problems

Cheers DC

[sbond10]

Sorry I've hijacked your thread but I do love brew day photos as I look at the pics see different ways of doing things and want to know more. See I'm at the stage where I'm enjoying no chill but if I go bigger (I have a 100 litre pan) then I've gotta consider more jerry cans or some sort of chiller.
Cheers for the ideas

[DC]

I have used a counter flow chiller before my plate chiller & a immersion chiller before that, the plate chiller seems to be the most effective so far but it's the most expensive option I've used so far.

Cheers DC

[marinali29]

Are you heating your wort DC?

[quote="DC"]Yeah, it gets the temp too low if I alter the flow of wort & water so it takes a bit fiddling to get the desired output temperature ! But it works great on the first pass no problems

Cheers DC[/quote]

[marinali29]

Hey DC, what's the best temp,18-20 C?

[quote="DC"]Yeah, it gets the temp too low if I alter the flow of wort & water so it takes a bit fiddling to get the desired output temperature ! But it works great on the first pass no problems

Cheers DC[/quote]

[DC]

Hi Marinali29, best temp for fermenting lager I have found is between 9-12 degrees depending on your lager yeast and providing you can maintain that temp range

Cheers DC

[rui]

Mr. Dc how this turns out??

cheers