Which Lager kit?

[Marco54]

Hi all, I'm relatively new to brewing and have recently done a couple of Bulldog cider kits with positive results.
I now fancy doing a Lager or similar and would like advice as to which kit. I will be bottling the finished product and like a good fizz so please someone point me in the right direction

 

[nigelnorris]

Festival New Zealand Pilsner is lovely, quite hoppy but you can change that by playing with the dry hop amounts and timings. Doesn't use a lager yeast [and none the worse for that] so no need for low temperature fermentation or anything complicated, just chuck it into a bucket like everything else.

Also I've made Bulldog Hammer of Thor, which is a high octane lager kit. Again no fridge required for fermentation. Comes out quite fruity and again dry hops are included so you can play around with that.

Plenty of reviews in the Kit forum, worth feretting about the site if you've not found that yet.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The A - Z kit review thread @nigelnorris mentions above is here :thumb: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=61597

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[DarkHorse]

Im just waiting on a betterbrew export lager kit to bottle condition. Lhbs recommended it as a fairly quick to drink kit and had some nice feedback in the reviews. Iirc their pilsner kit and coopers aussie/euro lager kits seem well respected.

Ive never made a lager before so am a bit nervous and excited about how it will turn out. Hopefully it'll make a nice tonic to this hot weather, if not got a pale ale on standby!

 

[LarryF]

If you take one of the blonde or Cerveza kits or even something like the Wilko Delicate Pilsner you can really dress them up with a hop tea and a dry hop. With a carbonation level of 1/2tsp of sugar per 500ml bottle (or equivalent if kegging) you'll get that nice fizz bite on your tongue when it's chilled and a nice hop kick after that. Saying that though I'm going to be putting on a Better Brew Czech Pilsner on Saturday as it's got great reviews on here but I'll be dressing that up to some degree. Would have been even better if Brewsmart could have packed my order a little bit better even throwing in some bubblewrap and maybe both my Betterbrew pouches wouldn't have split. LME is just such a joy to clean up.

 

[sdt7618]

My favourite lager at the moment is a simple young's harvest lager brewed with 1kg of brew enhancer. give it a good dry hop with 40gm of cascade, lovely.

But I have used a lager yeast at 13 degrees for 4 weeks, not the kit yeast and lagered it in a brew fridge for 6 weeks at 2 degrees. long slow proceess but the lager is very clear, tastes great and has a nice head all the way down.