Some advice on my first AG lager please

[keith1664]

Like it says I'm intending to brew my first lager Monday and there are a few things I'd like your thoughts on.

I'm not intending any particular style, this is after all homebrew and we can brew what we like. But I have some NZ Motueka hops which supposedly make a nice lager. Which leads me to my first question... Water. Mines hard, between 216-268meq/l, normally I use CRS and the water treatment calculator to lower it. Will this be good enough for a lager or do I ease up on the hops and aim for a maltier ( dortmunder style ) brew, cut it with bottled water or???

My next query is with the grain bill, when I've brewed an all pale malt beer I've found it a bit "thin". So along with my lager malt (nil stock pilsener at the LHBS) I'm thinking of adding a small amount of Cara Malt (2% or so) and some wheat malt but would there be much to be gained with any other additions ( I think I have about a kilo each of Munich and Aromatic)?

Yeast will be Brewferm Lager Yeast, 2 packets per fermenter.

So

Motuekalaga

Original Gravity (OG): 1.051 (°P): 12.6
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 3.6 (EBC): 7.0
Bitterness (IBU): 35.5 (Average)

92.59% Lager Malt
4.94% Wheat Malt
2.47% Caramalt

1.9 g/L Motueka (6% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Motueka (6% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 12°C with Lager yeast


Recipe Generated with BrewMate


Your thoughts please.

 

[Aleman]

Single infusion mash 90% Lager and 10% Munich will give you a good result. Try and avoid most of the 'crystal' malts as they do increase the colour significantly . . . carapils is OK though

CRS to lower the alkalinity to 30 will be fine . . . at that level of alkalinity your calcium is high enough so you won't really need to worry about supplementing it, although a tsp of table salt may help restore a sensible sulphate : chloride ratio to offset the apparent bitterness increase from the additional sulphate added by the CRS. This is where using the individual acids that make up CRS is a better option . . . In this case I would use hydrochloric acid to reduce the alkalinity which increases chloride and therefore allows me to have a higher hopping rate.

Hops wise . . . Motueka is 'Saaz like', but used late is overpowering taste wise. Bittering as a 90min addition is fine . . . I often use it instead of Saaz in my Bohemian pilsner as it reduces the hop charge by 75%. For flavour and aroma, keep it subtle with either Saaz or Hallertau Mittlefruh (at a push any of the Hallertau will do nicely) . . . Possibly even consider Tettnang . . . Don't overdo the late additions though

Aim for an OG of 48-52 and because of your high sulphate consider bittering to 30-35IBU

 

[keith1664]

Thanks for the feedback Aleman, I'll have to pop to the LHBS for some Saaz while the mash is on then as I only have about 10g in the freezer. How much would you recommend as a late addition in a 40L batch?

 

[Mark1964]

we added 60g saaz at 90 mins for our lager also used hallertau mittlefruh and hersbrucker hops. I would next time invest in a good lager yeast as it tastes alot better than the packet stuff

 

[Aleman]

How much would you recommend as a late addition in a 40L batch?

40-50g . . . it's not over the top . . . I would go for adding them at 70C than a rest while cooling for 30 minutes then cool to pitching temp.

Dried Lager yeasts like W34/70 and s23 are great . . .. as long as you pitch enough

 

[keith1664]

Well I have 4 12g packets which is enough according to Mr Malty.
I've not been able to find out a huge amount about the yeast other than it ferments out clean, dry and malty. Very low on sulferous compounds? And high flocculation.
However I really didn't have the time to make a starter for 40L!

 

[keith1664]

I brewed this today, couldn't make it to the LHBS as I was showing someone from Jim's how I went about things so it got 25g of Motueka and 15G of Saaz at 75 degrees. The fermenting fridge has finally managed to drop it to 12 degrees so I'll be pitching in a mo then off to bed!