Lager

[bandit]

I have tried to convert the lager drinkers to real ale but so far some are still unconverted. Where is the best place to start looking for lager recipies and techniques? I am wanting to get some ready for the BBQ days ahead. Two days of 15 deg C and the BBQ word has been used again, YES!!!

[shiny beast]

To achieve a genuine lager flavour you need to ferment somewhere in the rangeof 8-15 celcius. At lower temperatures the metabolic rate of the yeast slows down, resulting in a cleaner,less estery(fruity) profile.
If you have no temperature control, then go for an ale yeast with a clean, malty flavour such as Safale US56.
Try keeping the ingredients simple. Pils or Lager malt plus any of the good aroma hops. Saaz, Perle and Tetnang are all good examples.
If your mates like drinking macroswill such as Bud and Fosters, you can add adjuncts such as flaked rice or maize. These will give you a lighter less malty brew.

[SteveD]

If your mates like drinking macroswill such as Bud and Fosters, you can add adjuncts such as flaked rice or maize. These will give you a lighter less malty brew.

If they like the cold tasteless stuff - Bud, Corona, Fosters, Pisswasser Hellischebrau, etc, rather than mess around with adjuncts, the easiest way is to go to Tesco and buy 2x24 pack cans of Value lager, and open the cans into your keg. It'll probably be cheaper than brewing it, and certainly less time consuming.

If they like decent beer, brew decent beer. Normal Lager or Pilsner malt, Hallertau is another class aroma hop, very soft water and a touch of lactic acid to sort out the mash ph, or you could add acid malt although lactic acid addition is an easier way of hitting the right ph first time.

If you've got fermentation temperature contol facilities - start it off at 12c, after about 11 days raise to 16c slowly over about 2 days, then slowly drop to -1c over the next week or so, then condition for 3 weeks.

If you haven't, just ferment it as cool as you can.

[mysterio]

Getting lager to completely ferment can be a bit of a challenge, in my experience it has been necessary to make a large starter (3 or 4 L) for the yeast, then decanting the starter 'beer' and pitching the slurry. Also it is essential to aerate the wort well, and yeast nutrient doesn't hurt. A way around this hassle may be to use the dried lager yeasts on the market, however I've never tried these. My lagers typically use a combination of Pilsner malt and Munich malt, WLP802 yeast and Saaz hops. I don't always see the need for adjuncts in lager, you can make extremely light tasting beer with 100% pilsner malt. A German helles might be a good place to start.

A lot of the lager reading can be somewhat frightning but as long as you watch your yeast and control the fermentation temps it's not difficult beer to make. Homebrewed lager tastes amazing.

[Frothy]

Yes we've also been on the word BBQ for the last couple of days. Last batch of lager took a grand total of 2 months to complete so like you say it's good to get going now for the summer. 20 years ago lager legally had to be conditioned (lagered) for 6 weeks, of course the piss-merchants soon had this reduced to 2 weeks as it is now. I'm no expert but I had good results with a Grolsch clone (tasted more like stella) using Saflager, Marris Otter* and Flaked Maize. Hops Saaz & Hallertau, used in both Stella and Grolsch. 8-10oc primary in a fridge turned right up took 4 weeks and if I did it again I'd try and get more like 11oc to reduce this time. Conditioning with the fridge turned way down 0-4oc for 2-6weeks.

Frothy
* Not legit but it's what I can get hold of easily

[Scooby]

Not had a BBQ yet? I've had two

Why not brew a nice blond beer like Summer lightning, make it look like lager, then shock them with some flavour

[steve_flack]

A very pale ale hopped with 'lager hops' fermented on the cool side with a clean ale yeast is probably easier and most people wouldn't notice the difference if you serve it with appropriate carbonation and at the right temperature.

You could probably get close with a 100% lager malt grist (or use the low colour Maris Otter you can get), hopped with Saaz, Tettnang or Hallertau or similar and ferment with something like US-56 (if you use dry yeast) or a clean liquid ale yeast.

[steve_flack]

Standard Safale S-04 isn't a very clean yeast - do you mean one of the others they do? Actually Nottingham's pretty clean and (despite my recent problems with it) should be pretty attenuative.

[steve_flack]

You could try Wyeast 2112 (Californian Lager) which is supposed to still taste lager-like in fermentations up to 18C. It's given as being highly flocculant - just not very attenuative.

It's the Anchor Steam Beer yeast.

[spearmint-wino]

the easiest way is to go to Tesco and buy 2x24 pack cans of Value lager, and open the cans into your keg. It'll probably be cheaper than brewing it, and certainly less time consuming

I've got 3kgs of lager malt and some US-56 plus some spare time so I reckon I might do something along the lines of what we're talking about here, a kind of hybrid lager-ale thing...
Which Dave Line recipe are you talking about? I have BBLTYB so would be interested in using that as a recipe base too.

EDIT - Doh... I read your post properly this time.

[delboy]

You could try Wyeast 2112 (Californian Lager) which is supposed to still taste lager-like in fermentations up to 18C. It's given as being highly flocculant - just not very attenuative.

It's the Anchor Steam Beer yeast.

I've used the white labs version of this yeast.
First batch with 2L starter, fermented at 15-16C and it produced a lot of banana and bubblegum esters (swmbo quite liked i didn't care for it jsut so much).
Second batch went onto the yeast cake again 15-16C this time much cleaner and very little of the bubblegum aroma.
By my experience you'd need a huge starter to get the 'clean ferment' or you'd be better using nottingham which seems to leave little i the way of yeast flavours behind.

[bettyswallocks]

Hey Bandit man< I had the same problem trying to convert the lager boys. In the end as SteveD says I fill up my corny with the cheapest shite from supermarket, spit in it (not really) gas it up and they are none the wiser. Not wasting time brewing tasteless onion water to please the carling brigade.
I have converted a few buying a decent lager kit (2lb or more) fine tuning it with extra hops etc and it ends up like a summer ale. Very quaffable and quite tasty and from me thats a compliment as I like my ale like treacle sludge.
cheers