Now what?..

[bigdave]

My 1st ever brew is in its keg in the bathroom, the FV and all the kit is washed and steralised........ so now what?...... I was going to start on something light and summery but there's time to fit something else in, between now and BBQ weather. I quite fancy a Belgian brew but would prefer to produce a good volume rather than the 9Ltrs the Brewferm kit offers (which im guessing means Belgain is out of the window). Any ideas what to pop in the FV next?? I'm open to suggestions but nothing sickly sweet please.

[Barm]

Speaking as a paid-up, card-carrying bitter & stout bloke: now's thetime to think about brewing yeself some lager
You've got nice cool temperatures conducive to 'real' lager yeast strains; and a good few months' maturing in bottles before BBQ time is here again...

[bigdave]

Hmmm...... that's tempting actually.

[sidneybigbrew]

try brupaks special lager cant go wrong .i brew this at 15c in the spare room for 7 days rack into second fv leave for another 7 days bottle.t spoon of white sugar. six weeks latter beautiful clean crisp lager . highly recomended done this kit loads very consistant.

[guidomax]

I did a modified kit lager for the missus a few months back:
1 can Coopers Aussie Lager kit, 500g Munton's Hopped light spraymalt, 500g brewing sugar, made to 21 litres.
Ferment at low temps (mine was about 8 degrees C in the garage at that time) with Saflager S-23 until SG 1016, then bring inside for a couple of days (diacetyl rest) to finish off. FG 1012.
Bottle (primed with 100g brewing sugar for the batch), bottles in warm for 3/4 days, back out in the cold for a good couple of months, drink.

Needs to be left cold-conditioning for quite a while - the early bottles I had were tasty, but a bit 'thin'. It's since filled out and the missus actually likes it - result!

A mate of mine who's both a home brewer and a bit of a lager connoisseur came round to try it the other day (it's been two months or so since it went out to condition) and much to my delight he proclaimed it as the best homebrew lager he's drunk (and he brews his own lager too).

Turned out with quite a nice taste to it (for a lager) - think Staropramen and it's the right ballpark.

Definitely worth a go!

[bigdave]

That sounds like a good, simple recipe. One question, would using 500g light spray malt and 750g sugar just create an overly strong unpleasant lager?

[guidomax]

I can imagine an extra 250g of brewers sugar on top of what I did would be no problem at all.
Either that, or make up the above recipe to a shorter brewlength to get it stronger.

Worth a try at least

[Roy]

I was thinking of a nice Lager ready for the world cup

[bigdave]

so now its decided, Lager it is. Ill pop off to the brew shop on saturday and pick a kit and some bits! Next decision to be made is keg or bottle? If I bottle Ill need 45 bottles, caps, bottling bucket, stick and capper (grand total £80 + the ingredients). If i keg Ill need another pressure barrel and cap with an S30 valve (grand total £34 + the ingredients). What are the pros and cons of both (apart from the cost).

[guidomax]

For a lager? Bottle all the way.

Pressure barrels can only hold up to 10 psi of pressure, which is great for an ale, but ya generally want lagers to be a little bit more fizzy.

Plus, you can fit bottles in the fridge - I don't know where you'd keep your barrel; I keep my kegs in the garage which is fridge-temperatures this time of year, but if you're thinking of drinking the beer once the weather gets warmer, warm lager doesn't go down quite so well as cold! So bottles a definite advantage as they'll fit in the fridge easily.

Downside to bottles is that it's a blinkin' hassle to sanitise, fill, and cap forty-odd bottles.

Note though that you don't have to buy new bottles - I re-use bottles from supermarket beers, or if you can find a friendly landlord who'll give you some sturdy bottles (Magners bottles are good) then you're laughing.

[guidomax]

Also remember of course that you don't have to have a bottling bucket (although they are useful) - you can just syphon direct from the FV into bottles, then add sugar (or sugar solution) straight into the bottle.

The bottling stick is a godsend, though. Well worth the dosh.

Oh, also - if you don't mind appearing a little bit strange - have a mooch around your neighbours' recycling boxes on collection day. You'll collect a bunch of beer bottles in no time. Soak 'em in a VWP solution and you're laughing.

[bigdave]

I'd collected 15 bud bottles before finding out the glass is apparently too thin to be safe to use and the recycling was collected this morning.

Is it ok to bottle lager into clear plastic pop bottles? I know clear glass / plastic is no good for ale but can the same be said for lager?

[guidomax]

Yup. A mate of mine bottles exclusively into 2-litre PET (fizzy drinks) bottles. There's still the danger of light-strike so keep them somewhere dark.

And much less hassle cos you only have to clean and prep a dozen or so

They are ever-so-slightly porous to oxygen, apparantly, though. So they're not great for 'aging' a beer for more than a few months. Should be fine for short-term storage though, and in the meantime you can be mooching around chatting to landlords to get their used ale bottles and/or liberating them from recycling

[cwrw gwent]

Guidomax wrote "Also remember of course that you don't have to have a bottling bucket (although they are useful) - you can just syphon direct from the FV into bottles, then add sugar (or sugar solution) straight into the bottle."


Put the sugar in first. If you do it the other way round it tends to do a Versuvius impression.

[bigdave]

Thats good news. I very much doubt the 1st lager will last more than a few weeks once clear anyway (I have a lot of lager monster friends and relatives) and as you say, it will give me chance to collect bottles. Cheers