Coriander, Lime and Honey Lager

[Daron]

I have to share this little bewdy.

Ingredients:
Coopers Lager kit
100g Coriander seeds
3 limes
250g honey
400g Maltodextrin
60g Halertau hops
500 light dried malt extract
500g Dextrose

Recipe:
Zest the limes then squeeze juice into separate cup.
Bring 2 litres of water to the boil with the zest in it for 20 mins
Put coriander seeds, cracked, into a stocking with 30g Hallertau
Have remaining 30g in another bag.

Add maltodex, LDME and dextrose to boil and bring abck to boil. Add 30g of the hops for 20min then remove.
Add lime juice and honey, bring to boil and add bag of hops and coriander.
Boil for 5mins then steep for 15.
Add kit and stir, then add contents to the fermenter, including bag of seeds and hops.

Filled to 23 litres and pitch yeast at 25C.
SG 1.052 - FG- 1018

Rack after a week. Another week in secondary.

I primed them with 1 carbonation drop and the result was flat after 2 weeks, so I added another drop and waited 2 weeks. Sensational.
I also primed some with dextrose and will try them tonight.

The zest and lime makes it abit cloudy and it's probably best to wait 4 weeks before hooking in.

This a lovely beer that has a citrus after taste, but not overpowering. It's real cracking summer drop and would go well with a curry.

I'd even have some glasses in your freezer to pour this into. It just adds to it.

Hope someone enjoys it. If you try it let me know how you go.

[NickMoore]

good one daron, that's now high on the list.

thanks for taking the time to share.

[Daron]

No worries, Nick. I reckon if you can, put a few aside for a couple of months or more and it will i prove. I can't say I'm that patient, but I'll try.

[yardglass]

hey Daron,

Mate that sounds like a Xmas beer to me.

I'm just mucking around with lemons, oranges, coriander in a wheat, so like Nick said I'm going to pencil this one in.

I only went with 50gm Coriander, but in the boil I think it overpowered evrything else as far as the smell went.

Does it stand out in this Brew ?
Also can I ask what Yeast did you pitch ?

thanks
yard

[Daron]

Yardglass,

it most certainly will make a great Xmas beer.
I just pitched the yeast from the coopers kit.
I just tried one primed with dextrose and it was still a bit flat. The carb drops have worked better. I get a decent head from it.
The coriander isn't overpowering. If anything the lime is more noticeable, but it's a great fruity/citrus mix with just a hint of honey. A wheat kit would probably go just as well with this.
I reckon it could be tweaked to get a perfect drop. I've been keen to brew a coriander beer that isn't too overpowering, but one that is certainly noticeable. This was just a first crack at it.

Enjoy

[yardglass]

I'll tell Santy to expect a Lime Lager then.

cheers
yg

[BadSeed]

I have made this one and it is pretty good, goes down well.
I found another recipe on the internets which I have made today.

1 Muntons continental pilsner kit
1 kg ldme
500g wheat malt
250g Honey
15 grams Coriander Seed
6 Limes
Saflager Yeast

Cut the lime into quarters, crush the coriander seeds and boil with the honey for a couple of minutes. (I roll the limes under the palm of my hand first as it releases more juice)
Make up the rest as usual.

The bloke who wrote the recipe makes the claim that this is the best beer he has ever tasted.

His recipe called for either 2kg light malt extract or a Belgian can recipe, I didn't fancy the malt only and the pilsner (1.8kg) looked like a reasonable kit to replace it with.
Not sure about the lack of hops though.

Certainly smells good went in at 1056

[Clean Brewer]

That is a crap lot of coriander seeds.........

You obviously dont toast them first?

[Daron1973]

I wrote this in 2005, and have been meaning to revisit the recipe. Tonight I thought i'd search for it, and then i find it on the first page after so long... uncanny that.

I stand by the 100g coriander seeds. I just cracked them and boilt. d
It didnt hurt the brew in the slightest.

Will get another going this week.

That recipe looks good too.

[James L]

bit of soy sauce and it sounds like something you could marinate your chicken in....

but seriously, it sounds good.

[Daron1973]

bit of soy sauce and it sounds like something you could marinate your chicken in....

but seriously, it sounds good.

Hell, you could too I guess. But I dont like wasting beer
make it and have a stinking hot Thai curry to wash down with it... goes real good together!

[kiwijimbob]

Hey - just a question...

Why do you rack after one week and continue to ferment in a secondary vessel? What would happen if you didn't?

Cheers

Jimmy

[Daron1973]

i did it too help clear the brew. The lime made it cloudy and i wanted to ensure a clearer brew.

[rwh]

The primary reason is to avoid flavours from the autolosys (death) of the yeast in the yeast cake.

[kiwijimbob]

Thanks guys.

RWH - if you were racking to avoid autolysis then would it be necessary to rack after one week? I thought, generally, beers were ok on the yeast cake for up to about 3 weeks before needing to be racked?

I am planning to brew this beer and would be using my Whitelabs German Lager Yeast so would be fermenting at around 11deg then racking once fermentation has completed into a settling cube to lager the beer for 3-4 weeks.

Do you think I would need to rack after one week, ferment for another then rack again to lager? Or could I go ahead as I planned and rack after fermentation has completed?

Thanks!

Jimmy

[rwh]

Yeah, primary is fine for up to three weeks (possibly longer), especially if you have good temp control. I certainly wouldn't bother racking twice, but a trap for now players with racking is the headpspace of your secondary vessel: it contains air. You need to do something about purging that and replacing it with CO2. The traditional method for lagers is to rack before primary is quite complete, but because it's often difficult to gauge that accurately, sometimes people add a little extra dextrose, boiled in some water, to the secondary before racking the beer into it. This provides a little sugar, so the yeast produce some CO2, to ensure the headspace is properly purged.

[kiwijimbob]

Thanks for that. My local homebrew shop told me that I should add 2 or 3 carb drops to the settling cube just before racking to do just that.

Will that do the trick?

[rwh]

Yup, cept I like to boil up the sugar in a bit of water just to ensure it's sanitary. Imagine if ants got into your carb drops...

[kiwijimbob]

Hi guys,

I had a crack at brewing this recipe and have just racked it (after 2 weeks fermentation) for lagering.

I followed the recipe at the beginning of this topic with the following variations:

65g or coriander seeds instead of 100g (I thought I had about 85g but when I weighed it there was only 65)
Saflager 34/70 instead of kit yeast

I dry hopped an additional 24g or hallertau when I racked for lagering (just now).

So far (from SG test tastings) it is tasting fantastic!! I am happy with the amount of lime and coriander (pleased I didn't go the whole 100g I think) but think it will benefit from the additional hop addition.

I plan to lager it for about 2 months. I am lucky that I work in a kitchen and so have access to a coldroom with plenty of room for lagering in!

A quick question. Once this has finished lagering and I bottle it how long do I need to leave it in the bottle before drinking it? Does it only need a couple of weeks so that it carbonates or does it need to bottle condition too?

I'm guessing it doesn't need to bottle condition since it will have had 2 months conditioning in bulk but I could be wrong...

Cheers

Jimmy

[KEG]

lagering will drop out some of the yeast, which can make it take longer to carbonate in the bottle. if you keep it at room temp, should be carb'd in two weeks, but might take a little longer.