Bavarian Lager

[malty]

I've been browsing this forum for a year or so and only just got up the courage to sign up.

I'm brewing a few Coopers Bavarians. The first one with:

1kg light malt
yeast from kit
brewed at 12 deg.

Now 5 weeks in the bottle. It tastes ok, but not anything like as crisp or complex in flavour as,say, a Becks or Grolsch.

I've tried adding between 10-25 gm Hallertau hops to later batches, but the flavour result is strange, not any closer to a German lager. Perhaps I don't like Hallertau flavour.

Questions:

Is the yeast (apparently a Saf) as good as a W34/70 or should I invest in a different one?

Is there a different hops I should be using?

I'm not set up to cold condition or rack. Is there anything else easy that will help me get the flavour I'm after?

Cheers,
Malty

[NTRabbit]

Questions:

Is the yeast (apparently a Saf) as good as a W34/70 or should I invest in a different one?

Is there a different hops I should be using?

I'm not set up to cold condition or rack. Is there anything else easy that will help me get the flavour I'm after?

Cheers,
Malty

Welcome to the forums!

1) I forget which yeast it specifically comes with, buts its pretty decent as I recall

2) You could try Hersbrucker hops

3) This is probably the major reason behind the taste difference - cold conditioning is a must for lagers, as it greatly alters the flavour and smoothness of the beer. I don't cold condition until after I've bottled, so all you really need is enough fridge space to whack 60 stubbies for 4 weeks

[Chris]

Cold temps are the way to go to get the smooth lager taste.

As for the kit Saflager, it is fine. The W34/70 is a more German-styled yeast, and would go well with this kit also.

As for hops, German lagers are usually not heavily hopped, and have little or no hop aroma. Really if you are unsure how to get what you want, find yourself a recipe. It wouldn't be to hard for a lager.

[malty]

Really if you are unsure how to get what you want, find yourself a recipe. It wouldn't be to hard for a lager.

Excuse my ignorance, but where would I go to find a recipe for this. I've been guided by the ones in the Brewcraft book, but they seem a bit like adds for Brewcraft half the time.

Malty

[Chris]

That is so true. Brewcraft are shameless self-promoters. I spoke to someone once who was told by a brewcraft person, that if they varied the brewcraft ingredients even slightly- ie used another brand of malt as a substitute, that the beer would get infected. Good call guys.

Anyway, google searches are good, or even searches on this site.

There are many good resource pages on line, and with a bit of searching you should be able to find them. Many will be US sites, so have a unit conversion program at the ready.

[lethaldog]

For a really nice becks try using a malt shovel two row lager with a can of black rock blonde 1.5kg(light liquid malt extract), hallertau bittering hops 25g, saaz finishing hops 15g and drop 2 saflager yeast sachets with a final volume of 21 litres also any lager kit with a Brewcraft number 60 kit converter is really nice to.

[malty]

For a really nice becks try hallertau bittering hops 25g, .

In my Brewing Crafts book Hallertau hops are down as an aroma hop. Can you use them for bittering as well?

Malty

[lethaldog]

There are some recipes in that book that use hallertau bittering and some that use hallertau aroma hops and to my understanding they are the same thing, yes hallertau is a bittering hop that has great aromas.
i think but i could be wrong

[ACTbrewer]

Ahh, Hallertau, the 'noble hop'. One of Germany's finest. Good for bittering or flavour.

"The term Noble hops traditionally refers to four varieties of hop which are low in bitterness and high in aroma. They are the central European cultivars, 'Hallertauer Mittelfrueh', 'Tettnanger', 'Spalter', and 'Saaz'. They are each named for a specific region or city in which they were first grown or primarily grown.
Hallertau - The original German lager hop; due to susceptibility to crop disease was largely replaced by Hersbrucker in the 1970s and 1980s. (Alpha acid 3.5 - 5.5% / Beta acid 3 - 4%)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops

[madcaow]

For a really nice becks try using a malt shovel two row lager with a can of black rock blonde 1.5kg(light liquid malt extract), hallertau bittering hops 25g, saaz finishing hops 15g and drop 2 saflager yeast sachets with a final volume of 21 litres also any lager kit with a Brewcraft number 60 kit converter is really nice to.

awesome. might try that

[morgs]

My brew guy reckons the bavarian kit used to come with a lager yeast but not anymore. He says they had too many people ringing the hotline bout their brew going too slowly. Anyone care to add their bit on this.
john

[lethaldog]

For a really nice becks try using a malt shovel two row lager with a can of black rock blonde 1.5kg(light liquid malt extract), hallertau bittering hops 25g, saaz finishing hops 15g and drop 2 saflager yeast sachets with a final volume of 21 litres also any lager kit with a Brewcraft number 60 kit converter is really nice to.

awesome. might try that

Let me know how its goes!!

[lethaldog]

My brew guy reckons the bavarian kit used to come with a lager yeast but not anymore. He says they had too many people ringing the hotline bout their brew going too slowly. Anyone care to add their bit on this.
john

some brewers are just so impatient, usually beginners and im guessing thats where the complaints came from!! as for yeast, i never trust the yeast that comes with the can, they are usually not of good grade and you never know how long they have been on the shelf and at what temperatures, Have you noticed with any good yeast they are always in a fridge or cooler of some sort...