Newbie brewing lager

[totalguy]

To be honest that’s pretty wise, I tipped a 18 quid kit down the sink on my first attempt!

I have never been a fan of the really rubbish commercial stuff, but did drink stella, 1664 etc, since brewing myself I started only drinking good lagers (mainly german stuff), and now I am into ales like crazy, I never thought I would drink ale but I cant get enough of the stuff now. I think you get an appreciation for brewing, and begin to take beers at much more than the face value of “I prefer the taste of that one over that one”

I think thanks to big budgets of the big breweries most people just don’t know what kind of quality beer there is out there, I know when a had a bottle of some German stuff I had, I forget what it was, they were blown away.

Speaking of comercial beers i can tell if a pint does not taste right but other people cant, i seem to have a nack for it lol. specially at festivals and stuff im like this tastes wrong and other people are like tastes fine to me. you get this sharp horrible taste in a bad pint i suppose you need to aquire the taste for lagers to notice it. Makes me feel sick if i get a bad pint and i dont like drinking it.

Hey i started on coder when iwas 16 woodpecker lol had to get off it though coz it was making me violent, didnt like lager atthe time but it was better than bitter and i aquired the taste for it and have drunk it ever since lol.

[totalguy]

what should i use for priming? sugar or sraymalt or something else? Last time i put so many spoonfulls in each bottle but i think this time i will pupt the whole amount in the barrel considering i am going to put it in the barrell before bottles

I really won't make a huge difference to the final product as its a comparatively small amount. I'd suggested sugar or brewers sugar as it will likely result in slightly less additional sediment than spraymalt - but we're probably not talking huge differences here.

I've primed using granulated white sugar, demerara, spraymalt, brewers sugar and mixtures of the above. To be honest the biggest difference in sediment at the end is how clear the the beer is at the point of bottling. I suppose most of the sediment is simply that yeast falling out of suspension rather than new cell growth due to fermenting the priming sugars.

If you are using the barrel as your secondary fermenter / bottling bucket then adding the priming sugar solution to it is probably easier that adding it to each bottle individually. Oh, and only add that sugar just before you bottle not when transferring to the barrel. We want the resulting C02 in the bottle, not the barrel.

ever tried caster sugar? or is that not good? another thing im wondering is if stuff like that candarel and splenda has been tried for priming? i could be way off here this could be a totally bad idea lol.

[nicktherockstar]

splender... lol

ah you just cheerd me up

have to admit it has gone through my mind, but by the very nature of low cal sweetners means there is nothing there for the yeast to convert.

it is up to you, but i would say brewers sugar as a bare minimum. if you go for kit enchancer/spray malt thats up to you

[CrownCap]

Caster sugar is just the granulated stuff, but in smaller granules to to help it dissolve easier in your cake mixture for example. Icing sugar is still the same stuff, just powdered right down. They are all sucrose, which is basically a sugar molecule composed of a glucose and a fructose molecule. Maltose, one of the primary substances in spraymalt is two glucose molecules joined together.

Yeasts can break down these complex sugars into their simpler constituent parts and then ferment those simple sugars into alcohol (ethanol). A by product of this is carbon dioxide (CO2). When that happens in a closed container containing a liquid such a bottle with beer in, some of that C02 dissolves in the liquid and gives you the fizz as it then comes back out of solution when the bottle is opened.

Saccharin and other "artificial" sweeteners are not sugars and cannot be metabolised by the yeast into alcohol and CO2. They will just sweeten the beer and are certainly no good for priming.

[totalguy]

interesting stuff, i was just wondering thats all, nice to know people who know about these things and can reply about them

[Chris The Fish]

ever tried caster sugar? or is that not good? another thing im wondering is if stuff like that candarel and splenda has been tried for priming? i could be way off here this could be a totally bad idea lol.

never understood the logic in replacing natural sugar with a chemical, which is then supposed to be better for you!

arse in my book!

full fat, full sugar, extra added salt and more alcohol - there.. thats all the major food groups covered.

[totalguy]

lol

[StevieR]

I couldn't agree more with you Chris...life's too short to worry about it

[totalguy]

I couldn't agree more with you Chris...life's too short to worry about it

thats why we are here trying to brew beer and get pissed lol

[StevieR]

Just one other point regarding lagers, my understanding is that they need longer to condition than ales/bitters. I'm sure Daab or Jim mentioned a few months ?????

[totalguy]

a few months :O i cant wait that long ill die of thirst lol

[StevieR]

a few months :O i cant wait that long ill die of thirst lol

Me too..I've just put a pilsner on last Saturday and am hoping it will last until Decemeber

Best of luck

[totalguy]

soon as mines done it will probably last a month at the most that why il lbe putting on a new batch soon as its done lol.

[delboy]

im interested in is cheap beer, in fact its an obsession of mine and has been since i was a lad. To enjoy homebrewing all you need is a little bit of application to get 40 drinkable pints of whatever. Yes you can go to town and get the brewpacks brewers choice range, or get a 7.50 can kit and stick some glucose in, personally ive done kits at both ends of the scale and had really enjoyable beer from both. My first kit was a 7.50 harvest stout with 1.5kg of glucose in it, it was as strong as an ox and i had friends squeezing the yeasty sediment out of the keg it was that nice. ive also done some 20 quid kits that i wouldnt even look at again.

In short, if you want to brew cheap or expensive the choice is yours - but the more effort you put in the (normally) the better beer you get.

most of all, have fun and get shedded !!!

I agree with a lot of what you say about more effort equalling a better beer, im not sure though that i would nessecarily agree with you that you don't always get what you pay for (generally speaking, more expensive is better or a one can kit made up with spraymalt). The example you give with the harvest stout (IMO) simply illustrates that darker beer styles are easier to pull of than light, there is a lot more room to hide off flavours in amongst the roasted grains etc.
Making up a one can lager kit with an additional 1.5 Kg of glucose will probably result in something barely drinkable.

Chris the fish, if your obsession is beer on the cheap you really should think about joining us on the dark side. Some of my all grain beers work out at as little as 15p a pint

[totalguy]

I have been looking at the saflager yeist would i need 1 sachet per can? it says 11.5g i thought it was only 5g i needed? somewone please put me right before i order lol.

got my 6 cans now although a little dented on one or 2 they stil seem sealed apparently i got to put the can in hot water for a while before emptying it, didnt do that last time but ican see why it needs done.

just to confirm too, is it 1kg light spray malt i need per batch? also the instructions on the can say about a sediment trap, had a look on hop n grape site cant seem to find anything of that name on there, can someone point me in the right direction please.

Gonna order this stuff later or tomorrow.

TIA