Lager Recipe please

[Chris Tel]

Hi All,
Been brewing lots of AG recipes but now wish to now venture into the world of lager and really need a noddy guide to lagering and a recipe please.
In short have a fridge which I could convert but ideally prefer to make use of the ambient temperature inside and outside the house! Partly because I'm a flid when it comes to DIY!

Can someone please help.... something with lots of flavour (Pilsner Urquel like...?) would be brill!
Cheers in advance and forgive my ignorance!
Chris

[dazer23866]

how about this Czech Pils i have brewed it and its just divine
25l
4.179 kg pilsner malt
0.518 kg vienna malt
0.265 kg carra pils
70.00 g sazz on 90 mins
1pkg saflager (DCL/Fermentis #W34/70)

i did a double decoction fermented 14 days at 12c and 3 days at 16c then lager at 2c for 30 days and it taste great

[Chris Tel]

thanks Dazer! Kind of you to help me out.

[Barley Water]

Well if you are going to try your first lager, I would recommend something a bit darker. First of all, a darker beer will be a little more forgiving of errors in technique. Secondly, depending on your water, Czech pils can be a problem because you need very soft water to do that particular style well. Maybe a Dunkel or Schwartzbier might be better as a first go-around, especially if you have harder water. You need to pitch a ton or yeast or you will have attenuation problems and if you let the temperature get too warm you'll have issues with yeast by-products in the taste. Lager brewing will however make you a better brewer since you'll taste the mistakes, good luck and have fun. By the way, setting up a frig to do fermentation is as easy as plugging in a controller between the frig and the wall socket.

[Chris Tel]

Thanks guys for the all the advice and it sounds like the way to go is to purchase a controller to regulate temps effectively.
That said in the end went with making a Kolsch with WLP029 which I gather gives a reasonable lager taste without the hassle of fermenting at 12C.
Plumped with the following recipe on a little advice from Rob the maltmiller (albeit slightly altered)

21Litres
4kg Pilsner Malt
600g Munich Malt
Mashed at 66C for 90

Hops
Saaz 55g for 75mins
Saaz 25g for 5mins
saaz 20g for 1 min

Wacked in 500 ml starter of WLP029 (which I got going yesterday) at 8.45am this morning and I'm amazed that it's currently fermenting away nicely. In fact in the last hour can see lots of Krausen forming. (Did start at 3.00am but that's because I needed to be on the snow slopes of Halesowen with the kids in the morning!) Knackered now though.
Hoping at the end of fermentation to rack it off and put it in the garage (providing it's still cold) to lager and or in the fridge.....or even in the bedroom ; )

[Chris Tel]

For what it's worth the recipe above worked an absolute treat. Fantastic aroma and it's only been lagering for 1 week so far. Tastes out of this world but my worry is that by 4 weeks lagerign there won't be anything left! I'm hooked on trying to make a proper lager now though that'll involve converting my fridge to ferment at 12C and I'm completely useless!!!!
Anyone out there who lives in Birmingham area who might be able to help me...? Happy to pay for a bit of help!