BBQ session beer on for summer

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Decided i fancied doing something other than an ale/bitter and also wanted a 'lager' that my friends and family would drink during long summer evenings and BBQs
yeah - i know - living in hope of having a summer.....


so bought a Wilko Cerzeva one can kit. cheap and cheerful, but from reviews it lacks a bit of body and flavour done straight up.

Brewed as follows:
Wilko Cerzeva one can kit
50gm Magnum hop pellets in a 2l hop tea for 30 minutes
yeast nutrient
1kg brew enhancer
300gm mix of medium and dark brown sugar
CML Californian Common (Steam Lager) yeast
Brewed short to 20l
50gm Saaz hop pellets for a 5 day dry hop at the end
OG 1055 - looking for a 5-6% abv
will be bottled and then stored for the next 3 months (at least) in my cellar at approx 10C to condition

its still a bit cold in my office overnight - so having another go at using my surplus 50w aquarium heater. However the lowest setting it goes to is 20C and in my last brew, that actually turned out to be nearer 21.5C. I wanted this to be brewed at the lower end to make it as crisp as possible. So I took the heater apart and had a play with the variable resister on the top and tested it for the past 48 hours in a 1 gallon DJ of water - sat at exactly 18C. spot on!!!!!

Lets see how this one turns out. I reckon it'll be a funny old thing, hoppy/IPA/Cali common/Cerzeva with a hint of belgium from the dark brown sugar.
 
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does anybody have any recommendations on flavoured bottle priming?
I fancy bottling this up with a few different styles. Obvious one would be lemon and lime, but what would be the best way of imparting this in the bottle? Is it just as simple as chucking in some full fat lemon cordial instead of priming sugar?
Open to ideas on other flavourings too if you have any suggestions.
 
does anybody have any recommendations on flavoured bottle priming?
I fancy bottling this up with a few different styles. Obvious one would be lemon and lime, but what would be the best way of imparting this in the bottle? Is it just as simple as chucking in some full fat lemon cordial instead of priming sugar?
Open to ideas on other flavourings too if you have any suggestions.

What's quite common is to use the rind of a lemon or lime, soak it in vodka for ~5 days and pour the vodka into the beer before bottling. Other methods are to pour lemon/lime juice into the boil 15 mins before the end, but you may need to pour a lot to get flavour by the time it's drinkable. You can also boil the rinds, or do a mixture of all three in some way. I'm going to make an orange and grapefruit infused beer in the next week or two, so I'm thinking of adding juice to the boil, and rind/vodka mix to secondary. A forumite actually did an experiment using grapefruit flesh vs rind: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/elvis-juice-s.72536/ same can be done for lemons and lime.

Be careful adding anything with fat to beer as fat can reduce head retention. It's a consideration when adding cocoa to beer.
 
I'd rather not add anything to the fv, as I want to bottle some "straight".
But then maybe do some fruity ones etc whilst I was bottling
I'll have a think, might be able to find some lowitch polish fruit syrup that I've used previously for tc's.
 
That moment you decide to test a bottle and think...blurgh
Horrible aniseed funny smell.

Sit there contemplating what to do and scratch your chin. Whilst scratching said chin, you realise your hands smell funny.
Yep, wife has bought some funky whack hand soap!

It's amazing how much your sense of smell impacts what you taste!
I'll try another one tomorrow
 
You could always prime the brew with a variety of Lowicz syrups as they give the percentage of sugars on the label.

I have no idea as to how effective this would be in giving the beer a different flavour, but I suspect that it would only be a "hint" of Cherry, Raspberry etc.

Enjoy the experiment. The Wilco Cerveza kit is a great base for any experimental brew. One way to "lift" a Cerveza for the winter is to add a small amount of Chilli Vodka to the brew before bottling. :thumb:
 
You could always prime the brew with a variety of Lowicz syrups as they give the percentage of sugars on the label.

I have no idea as to how effective this would be in giving the beer a different flavour, but I suspect that it would only be a "hint" of Cherry, Raspberry etc.

Enjoy the experiment. The Wilco Cerveza kit is a great base for any experimental brew. One way to "lift" a Cerveza for the winter is to add a small amount of Chilli Vodka to the brew before bottling. :thumb:

That sounds like an even worse idea than the dark brown sugar.
 
Did you boil the magnum as 50g is rather a lot to add? Probably tripled the bitterness. I have dry hopped with saaz before and did not like the taste at all althoughi use it a lot for bittereting and late additions. Brown sugar in a lager is not a great idea either.
 
Did you boil the magnum as 50g is rather a lot to add? Probably tripled the bitterness. I have dry hopped with saaz before and did not like the taste at all althoughi use it a lot for bittereting and late additions. Brown sugar in a lager is not a great idea either.

no, i just did a hop tea with it.
i like a good hoppy beer and i am not going for a traditional lager - hence using a bit of brown sugar as per lots of discussions on the Coopers forum and elsewhere. So not sure why there has been negativity to using (a very small amount) brown sugar to add a flavour profile?
 

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