Lager nirvana

[ManxMan]

Hi folks,

been lurking in the wings for a while and thought I'd better jump in.

Quick CV.

First brewed about 25 years ago, some kind of lager kit. Truly awful and promptly gave up.
Took the plunge a couple of months ago with one of the big suppliers generic pilsners using sugar
and bottled it. Have to say, although a little thin and slightly "yeasty" it is quite drinkable.

Thus encouraged, I have conditioning 9 liters of Brupaks Chech Pils and fermenting 9 liters of Brewferm
Grand Cru with spray malt.

As you can see, I'm a lager drinker ( nothing against ale, I just don't like warm beer) so ultimately
I aspire to brewing something like Leffe or Urquelle. Is this possible with kits or would I have to go all grain?

cheers

[sonicated]

nothing against ale, I just don't like warm beer

Same here. I was a lager drinker before I started brewing but it's converted me to ale. I prefer the more complex flavours now.

I bottle all my beer for the fizz and I put it in the fridge before drinking

[Jim]

Well, it's different strokes for different folks, isn't it.

As you can probably guess from this site I'm not really into lager, but I do know that while you might get a kit to produce a half decent lager, to get something really special you'll need to go all grain, and lager is harder to make than ale. You need to be able to control a low fermentation temperature over a long period of time and to use authentic lager yeast strains.

Having said that, there a plenty of people on here that do just that, so if you're really serious about your brewing there'll be no shortage of help!

[mysterio]

Leffe is an ale

I'm guessing it's not ale in particular that you don't like but the things that usually go along with it, such as lack of carbonation, hop character and so on.

If you're serious about brewing beers like Leffe or Urquell then all-grain is the only way to go, but it's quite possible.

You can still brew decent lagers with a kit. Try the Coopers Euro lager or Pilsner kit, use 1 500g pack of spraymalt and maybe 200-300g plain sugar. Buy a genuine lager yeast like Saflager and ferment at cool temps if you can, 10 - 12 C.

[Manx Guy]

Hi ManxMan!

Great to see another person from the Island using this forum!

I have a Coopers Lager Kit on ATM which I've used some S-23 with and its currently fermenting away at 12C in my utility room...

We can get the cool tempratures here on the 'mild' IoM ...

I have a brewferm ambiorix in bottles conditioning and the few I've tried are good... a nice light ale similar to the real belgian ales

I'm going to be atempting a BF Pils kit also soon using the brewferm genuine lager yeast (purchased seperately)

I use art-of-brewing for my online ordering if you spend about £60 they'll deliver to the island for about £3.00
most other places will charge you £10.00 if its over 2kg...
Patsy @ Hop & grape is helpful as she'll tell you what the postage is if its less than the £10 the site adds to the bill for postage...

Any questions feel free to drop me a PM


Guy

[ManxMan]

Thank all for that. One ale that did catch my eye was Woodefords Great Eastern. Made with both ale and lager malts, I think it said. Prehaps that could be my road to ale epiphany so long as long as I could drink it chilled! What say you?

Also, could anyone give me a shopping list or point me to a thread, to brew a first class lager from grain? You can see from my previous post that I'm not talking Carling here. Something to rival a good Belgian or German .


Cheers

[ManxMan]

Sorry Mysterio and ManxGuy. I got called away in the middle of my last post. Hi, and thanks for your advice.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

IMHO Coopers Australian Pale Ale is a superb light ale from a kit made with either 1 kilo of beer kit enhancer (Session beer) or 1kg Light Dried Malt Extract (LDME) and 200-400g sugar which gives you a higher ABV

In fact most of the Coopers range is designed to be served chilled... You know how the Aussies are about cold beer!

lol

It superb chilled and has a good balance of body and clean refreshing taste!

I've made a few of these and added Pride of Ringwood hops(POR) and they have turned out great- very popular with my mates!


If you're after AG recipes for Lager you should have a look in the AG section of this forum-assuming someone doesnt come along and help you out...

Otherwise you could suggest that someone buy you a good brewing book...



Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi!

Just been looking in another thread I'm following and came accross this link:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=28596&st=0&sk=t&sd ... r&start=15

it has a recipe for a Czech Pilsener complete with photos! its for 45 litre but you could easily adapt it for a 5gal/23litre brew...

[mysterio]

Also, could anyone give me a shopping list or point me to a thread, to brew a first class lager from grain? You can see from my previous post that I'm not talking Carling here. Something to rival a good Belgian or German .

Check out Jim's 'All-Grain' link at the top right so you can see step by step what the all-grain process looks like. Obviously Jim is brewing an ale there but it's not a massive difference brewing a lager.

Second you'll need some kind of temperature control, like a fridge, chest freezer, or you could keep it in a garage/shed during the winter months and use a heatbelt/mat or something. You need to be able to control it to within a degree or so. 'ATC-800' or 'TC-10' are popular temp controlers because they can control both heating and cooling circuits (try a search for more info).

Lastly you can either bottle or quite nice to have is a 'cornelius keg' (old fizzy drinks kegs) which you can inject with CO2 and control the carbonation accurately. They are also pretty robust, easy to clean and store.

Lots to take in initially but once you're ready to take the first steps just post back. Recipes can be found by searching, usually they use lager malts, German/Czech hops and a lager yeast that works at cool temperatures.

[scottmoss]

The bloke from Leyland homebrew told me that the Brewferm Gold is very similar to Leffe Blonde!