Newbie brewing lager

[nicktherockstar]

ah I see, they are VERY cheap kits, normally you get 2 tins in a quality kit you see,

a good start, but as I say, you get what you pay for

[totalguy]

Yeah i dont expect much im happy with something thats about 4-5% and the last lot i had was cheap and it wasnt bad.


without having instructions here how many grams of this light malt spray am i going to need per 40 pint kit? They seem to have 2, but ones hopped?

[Orkney_Rob]

2 packs.

Whether you go hopped or not depends on if you want to add additional hoppy flavours! Although you could throw a hop tea bag in to do that as well... so probably best going unhopped

[totalguy]

im not sure what you mean with the flavour thing but i can tell you what i do and what i dont like in lagers.

fosters tastes weak
carling is bearable
tennents (standard is horid)
miller is nice and light
stella is great although it has a strong taste
grolch similar to stella
becks and budweiser just tasted wierd
kronenberg 1664 has a strong taste to it which i dont like
carlsberg is a no no tastes flat to me.

[nicktherockstar]

so basically you dont like shit lager... welcome to the club

but on a serious note, your looking for something like stella? but maybe not such a strong taste,

I am not going to lie, your going to strugle getting good results from those kits, you will hear them refered to as boot's kits etc, they are designed for cheap farthers day pressies etc, never to be used propperly. And to be honest if all your interested in is cheap beer I am not sure this is the game for you, you have to really live and breath beer, and want to make the best pint you can, and have pride in it.

[nicktherockstar]

having said that, where ever you see the word sugar, use spray malt or DME as its referd to on here (dried malt extract) and you will be on your way. if you use a brupacks "teabag" of grain and hops with the kit aswell you might just get something good out of the poor ingredients in the tin itself.

go here

the top two things are probilly what you want, the beer kit enchancer is basically spray malt and other sugars that will make your kind of kit alot better, the brupacks flavour thing just below will really really help aswell! I use them on just about every brew!

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/admin/cata ... e=0&page=1

[Chris The Fish]

im not sure what you mean with the flavour thing but i can tell you what i do and what i dont like in lagers.

fosters tastes weak
carling is bearable
tennents (standard is horid)
miller is nice and light
stella is great although it has a strong taste
grolch similar to stella
becks and budweiser just tasted wierd
kronenberg 1664 has a strong taste to it which i dont like
carlsberg is a no no tastes flat to me.

have you ever had peroni? the italian lager which is very light and crisp but measures in at a respecable 5.1%?

i have no idea of its constituent parts (hops, malt content etc) but to get a lager like this then cold temps are the way forward, however....

I did a lager kit using ale yeast and found it was a pleasant and drinkable pint of 'summer ale'. Being brewed around 18c was perhaps a bit high for the crisper less maltier flavours but hey, it was beer, and it drinkable!

And to be honest if all your interested in is cheap beer I am not sure this is the game for you, you have to really live and breath beer, and want to make the best pint you can, and have pride in it.

whilst you give good advice, i have to disagree here.

All 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 !!!

[CrownCap]

Hello there totalguy, welcome to the wonderful word of brewing your own beers! Great ain't it!

Given your preferences for the type of tipple you like, I'd say your after a fairly light lager, not too hoppy and with a good degree of carbonation?

If that's the case then using 1kg of spraymalt (complex sugars extracted from malted barley grains then spray dried) as the additional fermentable sugar you need to add to each kit is perhaps not your best bet. You are more likely to get a lighter, crisper body using say 750g spray malt and 250g of "brewers sugar" (also known as glucose or dextrose).

Whilst malt adds body to the brew (i.e. leaves some unfermented sugars) and is certainly beneficial to the flavour, the brewers sugar will ferment out completely without adding to the "body". That is more in keeping with the type of commercial lagers you listed. I'd advise against using the hopped variety of spray malt as the kit tin should have all the hop flavour you need already in it.

As an alternative, Muntons make something called "Beer Kit Enhancer". That is a 50/50 mix of spray malt and glucose. Using 500g of that along with 500g of spray malt will have exactly the same effect as what I described above.

Carbonation is a slightly trickier proposition. The "condition" in a beer (the C02 is has in it) can be achieved in 2 ways. Firstly by mixing in CO2 under high pressure. This is how the commercial lagers are produced. The yeast is filtered out before hand and the beer is pasteurised to keep is fresh. The result is a bright and fizzy lager, although somewhat lacking in character as a result. However, with your set up this is not a viable way to carbonate.

The other way, and what you did before, is to allow the remaining yeast in still in suspension to ferment out some remaining sugars or some freshly added priming sugars. The C02 produced carbonates the beer. However, this will always leave a small trace of yeast sediment at the bottom, unavoidable I'm afraid.

To minimise the sediment, transferring to the barrel for a week or maybe two to allow more yeast to drop out of suspension is a good idea. However, you don't want to do this under pressure. Just put the cap on loosely to stop any nasties getting in but to allow any excess C02 to escape. When the beer is clearing (but not completely, we still need some yeast) you are ready to bottle it.

Take some priming sugar (brewers sugar will best as it will produce less sediment but plain old white granulated will do too), say 100g and dissolve in 200ml of boiling water, then zap it in the microwave to sanitise it. Allow it to cool then add to the barrel and stir in very gently with a long sanitised spoon to help it mix in.

Transfer to those 2L pop bottles either via a syphon or some tubing on the barrel tap (if it has a bottom tap). Keep the bottles warm for a week (20°C, room temp) then pop them under the stairs for at least another 3 weeks or until the beer is completely clear ("bright"). The longer you can leave them the better - but I know it can be hard!

Before serving chill in your fridge (the bottles, not you) open carefully and pour gently into your glass. If you are very careful what little sediment there is in the bottle should remain undisturbed, but you may struggle in such a big bottle. If you can use smaller ones then that might make life easier.

Hopefully that should give you a good refreshing "lager like" pint to sit back and enjoy

[nicktherockstar]

sorry everyone, I think I am too much of a beer snop to give fair opinions on this one! lol

I am not saying you have to do £20 kits at all though, just saying something like a coopers etc is a good place to start

but ill shut it and keep out of it now

[totalguy]

having said that, where ever you see the word sugar, use spray malt or DME as its referd to on here (dried malt extract) and you will be on your way. if you use a brupacks "teabag" of grain and hops with the kit aswell you might just get something good out of the poor ingredients in the tin itself.

go here

the top two things are probilly what you want, the beer kit enchancer is basically spray malt and other sugars that will make your kind of kit alot better, the brupacks flavour thing just below will really really help aswell! I use them on just about every brew!

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/admin/cata ... e=0&page=1

Thanks again for the info, the first lot i made first pint was a bit strange but after that it seemed alright, it had a strongish taste and some fizz ill see what happens when i use the tins i get and using thespraymalt, bottled water and the comerical yeist it might be enough. i have 6 tins on order anyway so i got plenty to play with

[nicktherockstar]

play about with it then, use different yeasts and additives etc and see the difference! could be interesting.

[totalguy]

Given your preferences for the type of tipple you like, I'd say your after a fairly light lager, not too hoppy and with a good degree of carbonation?

That sounds about right to me i like some fiz in lager and a nice taste that you can actually taste when its cold. fosters is a prime BAD example of this when cold, it tastes like someones put water in it.

I will take note of your suggestions although first of all ill try out changing the water using spray malt and comerical yeast if that dont work so well i have plenty more to try

Like you said you know its hard, it is!! soon as i see it ready id want to drink it lol. I didnt do too bad with the 2.0L bottles last time i got almost down to the sediment part before it started moving at all it seemed pretty settled in there. I have one confusion though, if im going with the method i just said about 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, and yes its a bottom tap.

[totalguy]

sorry everyone, I think I am too much of a beer snop to give fair opinions on this one! lol

I am not saying you have to do £20 kits at all though, just saying something like a coopers etc is a good place to start

but ill shut it and keep out of it now

we all got to start somewhere lol of course i like to start cheap because then if it goes wrong youve lost less money

[nicktherockstar]

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 oneâ€

[CrownCap]

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.