All Grain Lager- Simples?

[mozza]

Hi,
I'm new to all grain but i've got the hang of it now though and love it. Im not a lager drinker myself although i do enjoy the imported ones like corona from time to time. My old man wont drink ale (i know he's not right!) so I want to make him an all grain lager. Ive currently got a cheap kit in a king keg which has been conditioning for 3 months now but has a strange, almost unpleasant aftertaste to it. Almost all beer kits ive done have this odd taste to them apart from the expensive two tin kits. He likes Bud and fosters ect, so nothing too strong i guess.

So my question is, could someone please give me the basics of doing an all grain lager (preferably with pale malt) as i understand you need to hit lots of certain temperatures? Or am i being daft even attempting an all grain lager just with my ale making equipment?

Cheers,

Sam

[raiderman]

there are people on here who'l tell you that you can't brew lager without access to industrial scale refrigeration and the sort of plant that Carlsberg would be proud of. The might be right, alternatively they might just like technology and building stuff and welding things. After an unfortunate incident where my nuclear powered stiring spoon went critical and left large tracts of cambridgeshire glowing quietly in the dark i gave up on technology and embraced the cottage side of the indusrty.
bearing in mind they brewed lager quite happily before refrigeration so can you. Its worthwhile trying to cool, I've put the FV in the bath and the sink before to cool it and its worth brewing before it gets much warmer. but you can otherwise use the right ingredients and whilst I'll accept that refridgeration will help its absence shouldn't put ypu off

[mozza]

Well that's reassuring! I can only keep it in the garage really. So im guessing the temperature would fluctuate around 10 degrees. would this work?

[Barley Water]

Well you can certainly brew a lager without temperature control however, it will be better if you can control fermentation temperatures. Sure, they did it "back in the day" but I would be willing to bet that quality was somewhat lacking. California Common is a beer style that arose because German trained brewers (read that lager brewers) found themselves on the west cost of the United States without refigeration. Here's the thing; if you want to compete in contests you better control the temperature otherwise if you just want something to quaff it might work out; your beer likely will not be quite as clean but who cares as long as you like it. Here in Texas, it just gets way too hot to even consider it and the simple truth of the matter is that the hotter you ferment, the more esters and higher alcholols that your yeast is going to throw off. I would say pick your yeast carefully given the existing conditions and try to insulate your fermenter to reduce the swings in temperature. Steam beer yeast might be a good choice for you given your contraints. Go for it and good luck.

[jaroporter]

i would add, not having refridgeration doesn't neccessarily mean not having temperature control.. 'back in the day' beers were often brewed in the colder months anyway, but also then bulk lagered in large vats in stores under the ground, or behind thick walls, that would be resistant to temperature swings and could maintain a constant cool temperature. if brewing into spring then 'refridgeration' could have been achieved through large stocks of ice.

any way you can keep the FV submerged in ice water for the lagering stage?

[mozza]

I'm not too sure on the process to be honest, but if I'm right in thinking the lagering takes several weeks then probably not. I might just wait until the winter then now that things are heating up

[jaroporter]

single best resource on the subject: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... ing_Lagers

everything you need to know (and plenty you don't) to brew a lager. as simple or as complex as you wanna make it..

[mozza]

Now there's some bed time reading! Cheers!

[AdyG]

Hi,
I'm new to all grain but i've got the hang of it now though and love it. Im not a lager drinker myself although i do enjoy the imported ones like corona from time to time. My old man wont drink ale (i know he's not right!) so I want to make him an all grain lager. Ive currently got a cheap kit in a king keg which has been conditioning for 3 months now but has a strange, almost unpleasant aftertaste to it. Almost all beer kits ive done have this odd taste to them apart from the expensive two tin kits. He likes Bud and fosters ect, so nothing too strong i guess.

So my question is, could someone please give me the basics of doing an all grain lager (preferably with pale malt) as i understand you need to hit lots of certain temperatures? Or am i being daft even attempting an all grain lager just with my ale making equipment?

Cheers,

Sam

My dad used to brew lager from kits and always put a dash of lime cordial concerntrate in a chilled glass before pouring. It tasted ok and removed the yeasty tang some kit lagers have, might even taste like Corona then! Might save the keg of kit lager yet.

On brewing lager, why not do a nice crisp IPA, make sure the keg is carbed up and just tell him it's your own recipe lager. By the time he's tried a couple of pints I'm sure he will be won over!

[Barley Water]

Yes, adding lime will certainly cover up a multitude of sins. Budweiser and I suppose some of the other brewers are adding the stuff themselves saving the consumer the trouble. The thing is though, if the beer is so flawed that you need to play games to cover the taste, I contend that there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. I personally would rather just brew ales if I didn't have the equipment to do lagers if they turned out so badly that I needed to start adding limes to make them drinkable. On the other hand, there are many people in the world that apparently like that taste and since nobody died and made me king what the hell. Although roughly 1/3 of my production is lagers, I still consider myself an "ale man" at heart.

[mozza]

im planning on leaving it in the keg until the winter just to see if the taste mellows out. if its strange with a wedge of lime after all that time im gonna end up chucking it i think!

[seymour]

...I personally would rather just brew ales if I didn't have the equipment to do lagers if they turned out so badly that I needed to start adding limes to make them drinkable...

I agree. In other words, a too-warm lager fermentation tastes much worse than a neutral ale fermentation at the same temperature. Hence, if you want lager-like flavours but cannot hold a cold temperature, consider using a German alt or kolsch strain instead of a lager strain, and place the fermentor in the coolest ambient spot possible. Once it's bottled, you can cold-condition them in your fridge, but it'll be too late to clean-up all of the ill-effects.