First Larger - Tips required.

[Waffty]

Hi,

Just about to kick off my first real lager kit & was looking for some hint/tips.

Basically I've bought a Dudley & Gornal Ales 1.8Kg kit from Harris, who are my local homebrew shop. They sell there own kit's which I believe are made for them by Muntons, so I thought I'd give them a go (& at £7.95, why not?).

The 1.8Kg kit will from the basis of my brew, with the addtion of 500g of muntons spray dried light malt & 500g of brewing sugar. To which I plan to add a Brupaks Lager 'flavour' pack (£1.50 from H&G) & pitch it with SAFLAGER S23 yeast.

So if the above is ok i.e there's no 'howlers' in there, what temp do I need to ferment this brew at, as ideally I was going to go low but according to the yeast instruction, if you go lower than 15 degrees, then you need to pitch another packet of yeast. Likewise, if I pitch at room temp (which I take to mean 20 degrees), I can get away with one packet (& at £2 per pack, I think I'll stick to one )

Also, how long can I expect the brew to ferment at, say 19 degrees, how long should I leave it in the FV + how long & at what temp should I leave it in the keg for?

Many thanks in advance.
Darren.

[steve_flack]

IMO you'll actually get a cleaner (pseudo) lager fermenting with Nottingham or US-05 than you will with S-23. Especially at ale temps.

[maxashton]

Pitch at 20, gradually reduce to 12 i'd say, if you have temperature control that's fine enough.

[orable]

I've done a couple of muntons gold pilsner kits by making up the kit and pitching S23 at room temp. I let the yeast get started and the next morning moved the FV out to the garage.

Took mine about 10 days from being moved to fermenting out. Can't say for kegging as I went with over carbonated 2L plastic bottles, which were then decanted into a pitcher.

Results were easily as good as shop bought 'premium' lager.

[Waffty]

Thanks for the tips, I think I'll go with pitching at room temp & reduce the temp after the yeast has got into it's flow.

I'll also look at other yeast/kit options, as I only opted for the Dudley Lager, as they're a local stockist & the safe yeast, as I don't trust the the stuff that comes with the kits

Thanks again, I'll get it kicked off and let you know how I get on.

Darren.

[Dave J]

I've done a similar thing to orable. Started the yeast at room temp, then moved the whole lot into the garage.

I've set my heater up to hold the temp at 12C, which works a treat, it took about 2 weeks to ferment fully. Much easier getting the temp during winter of course.

[Waffty]

Brew is going fine, the temp is down at 16 & bubbling away nicley. Given that this is my first lager, I may just leave it at 16 and see how I get on.

Then the next brew, I'll pitch two packets of yeast & drop the temp to say 11.

I've got a bit of fixtures 'bottle' neck at the moment, so could do with freeing up the FV in a week or so

Darren.