AndyG4 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 hi, here's the recipe, made purely out of what's in the cupboard: coopers cervaza kit 500g BE2 500g dry wheat malt 250g light dry malt in the hop boil 30g nelson sauv hops @ 10 mins 20g nelson sauv hops @ 0 mins Saflager W34/70 the aim is a nice, easy to drink beer, but that isn't like drinking water. is there enough hops in this? i'm tossing up whether this might benefit further from cascade or galaxy hops - but i'm not too familiar with either of these being used in lagers. so a) keep with the nelson sauv that i have b) add 20g cascade hops @ 10 mins c) add 20g galaxy hops @ 10 mins (i'm told to keep the aroma hops just to the nelson sauv, but i'm quite keen for advice on using another flavour hop) I'm in love with both Cascade and Galaxy in my little experience using them, and in my extensive experience in drinking beers that contain them - but do they suit the beer? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Well to be honest because the Cerveza kit has such a low bitterness to start with you can take it any direction you want. You could just add malt or wheat as you intend with aromatic hops or boil longer for bittering. Really its depends on whats easy to drink for you compared to the next person. So if you like aromatic hop flavour and those hops i would try it otherwise maby boil total 20 mins if like bitterness and adjust accordingly. Really what is good for one may not be for another experementing is the key. I recently descovered i love Amarillo hops next week im going to try dry hoping with cascade as well as Amarillo in the boil its all the fun good luck mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Andy, I would just stick to Nelson Sauvin only. If you haven't made it before its always good to see what a single hop brings to it and then play around with later batches. You could dry hop some NS too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Or as a third option 20g cascade at 20 min 5g ns and 10g galaxy @ 10 min 5g ns and 10 galaxy @ 0 min NS can be pretty over powering if too much is used, used sparingly can add a nice hop complexity. I havnt done that kit but ive used all of those hops loads. Yob edit: changed NS amounts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyG4 Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 damn. yob, i wish your post had've come a little earlier - with stuff to do this arvo, i rang the brew shop at 9am to speak to the guy who recommended the nelson sauv in the cerveza in the first place. he said 25g Galaxy @ 20 mins 20g NS @ 10 mins 20g NS @ 0 mins so i hope it's not too overpowering! i've changed the heading to broaden the scope of this thread to ask if there's any sort of maths to water temperature. i got a 15 litre water vessel. it was in my temp controlled fridge at 8 degrees overnight in the hope that, with the addition of boiled water, it would come out at about 15 degrees. my 15 litres of water, plus the fermentatables, plus 1.7 litres boiled water, plus the extract, plus the hop boil (probably boiled down to 1l by the time it'd finished boiling), made up to 23 litres using tap water... came out to 20 degrees. i don't understand this! i haven't pitched the yeast yet, i've just put the lid on it and put it in the fridge - but previous experience suggests it'll be 6 hours before it's chilled, which sucks, cos it's a long weekend in Canberra and i have a sunday session to go to this arvo! is there a method to figuring out what temperature it will come out at? when others are making lagers, how on earth do you get your brew to pitching temp of around 15 degrees? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 dont worry about the hops, will be great, vary the amounts next time and check the difference, many people prefer varies tases [lol] You are making whay will be a tasy beer I assure you. Re the boiling water. What can help is get your pot with the 'boil' ingerdients and put it in an ice bath, could be frizen drink bottles etc, (laundry sink is great) for half an hour and when cool add the the chilled water that you have had in the Fridge, I bet you will dial in on it it no time at all. Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyG4 Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 help! i put this cerveza down yesterday. yeast was pitched after about 4 hours when it got down to 15 degrees. i kept it cooling down to 12 degrees where it's been sitting for about 26 hours. it already has a massive amount of crap (trub?) sitting in the bottom of it. is this strange? should i stir it up? i can't tell whether it's trub or whether i just haven mixed the sugars properly (i'm sure it was disolved...) i haven't done anything yet, i thought i'd try and get some advice from here first. it's my first go at doing a lager, so i have no idea whether this is normal or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 As far as I'm aware, Lager yeasts are mostly bottom fermenters. So my advice would be to wait and take an SG reading, or wait until someone smarter than me gives some advice [ninja] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Relax fella... chill Breathe deep... Leave the Lid On.. Take a gravity reading in 3 days and taste it... above all... just relax about it, she's a big girl now and can take care of herself [lol] it WILL be fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamB8 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Yob said it beautifully, Ive read so many posts that went "So I opened the fermenter and stirred/added dex/threw in more yeast/insert other impatient brew damaging exercise" [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyG4 Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 nah, i've been here long enough to not just be opening the lid and stirring. i'll always ask/research before i go ahead and do. it just looks weird - i'm familiar with this look in brewing ales then cold conditioning, but it just seemed a bit strange that it's done it within 24 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 came out to 20 degrees. i don't understand this! My recollection of the physics involved here is spotty at best so hopefully the worst bits will be corrected, but essentially, while you'd think that adding x quantity of water at 10\xb0C to x quantity at 20\xb0C should yield a temp of ~15\xb0C, if I recall correctly it doesn't work that way most of the time for various reasons. Using a linear scale like Celcius is a good start, but there are some odd thermodynamic principles involved here and I have an even more vague recollection that the Kelvin or Rankine scales are better suited to making sense of this, also that oddball unexpected influences like dissolved gases etc. that come with the territory play a part (the principle of boiled water freezing faster than tap water has a relation here). Bottom line - forget the math and apply more chillage to your 15L container. [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 damn. yob, i wish your post had've come a little earlier - with stuff to do this arvo, i rang the brew shop at 9am to speak to the guy who recommended the nelson sauv in the cerveza in the first place. he said 25g Galaxy @ 20 mins 20g NS @ 10 mins 20g NS @ 0 mins so i hope it's not too overpowering! i've changed the heading to broaden the scope of this thread to ask if there's any sort of maths to water temperature. i got a 15 litre water vessel. it was in my temp controlled fridge at 8 degrees overnight in the hope that, with the addition of boiled water, it would come out at about 15 degrees. my 15 litres of water, plus the fermentatables, plus 1.7 litres boiled water, plus the extract, plus the hop boil (probably boiled down to 1l by the time it'd finished boiling), made up to 23 litres using tap water... came out to 20 degrees. i don't understand this! i haven't pitched the yeast yet, i've just put the lid on it and put it in the fridge - but previous experience suggests it'll be 6 hours before it's chilled, which sucks, cos it's a long weekend in Canberra and i have a sunday session to go to this arvo! is there a method to figuring out what temperature it will come out at? when others are making lagers, how on earth do you get your brew to pitching temp of around 15 degrees? Use a lot of chilled water to start with or have a decent chiller/fridge. After a while you get the hang of what to do to reduce the temps. You may also be interested in this Water mixing temp calculator a very handy tool indeed. Edit: if you have a fridge and can get it down to 20C, I'd just put it in the fridge, set the temp and pitch the yeast an hour or two later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 when others are making lagers' date=' how on earth do you get your brew to pitching temp of around 15 degrees?[/quote'] The trick is to chill your boiled wort before adding it to the FV. I have 2 five litre water containers that I chill overnight. With my last lager I did a 5 litre boil which I chilled in an ice bath until the temperature reached the low 20's. Then by adding 10 litres of chilled water and the rest as tap water, it brought my pitching temp down to 14 degrees. If I am brewing an ale then I find that 5 litres of chilled water is sufficient. Obviously it is also dependant on how warm the tap water is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyG4 Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Or as a third option 20g cascade at 20 min 5g ns and 10g galaxy @ 10 min 5g ns and 10 galaxy @ 0 min NS can be pretty over powering if too much is used, used sparingly can add a nice hop complexity. I havnt done that kit but ive used all of those hops loads. Yob edit: changed NS amounts damn i wish i'd listened to you Yob! this Cerveza has been fermenting away for 15 days now. it had stopped at 1014, so i gave it a little bit of movement (no splashing!) and bumped it up from 12 degrees to 13 degrees yesterday. it's now down to about 1012, which is good news, so if it's stable tomorrow i'll cc it. 20g of Nelson Sauv @ 10 mins and another 20g @ 0 mins... and it tastes like white wine flavoured beer! ah well... i'm sure it'd be a nice summer beer if it weren't March :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistnbroke Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 colour wise the cerv kit would make a reasonable base for a knappstein reserve lager clone. That beer is a good one, and uses Nelson Sauvin - this works well in it. Dont forget a bit of bottle conditioning will see the hop flavour fade a bit, I'm sure it will turn out good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Dont forget a bit of bottle conditioning will see the hop flavour fade a bit' date=' I'm sure it will turn out good![/quote'] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ when you drink one in 2 weeks, you will probably have one mouthfull and tip the rest.... in a month you will do the same thing but this time with a frown... in 2 months you will wonder when the hell it's going to fade.... in 3 months you will finish one and say to yourself... I be seeing you lot in a month.... at which point they will last you about 2 weeks and you will be saying... Im going to brew that one again and this time I will go light on the NS... [lol] [roll] [lol] Also what you can do in the interim is get hold of some hop flowers... like amarillo or something... throw a pile into a jug and pour the beer onto it and squish the hops against the side for a few mins... this will mask the NS and you can drink them sooner [ninja] Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistnbroke Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 That is a fair point that I didnt consider Yob, 50g is alot of N.S to use on its own...though each to their own Ive never used N.S by itself, always used it in conjunction with cascade, which probably masks it a little, and have never used more than 40g in total of it (i think from memory 30g max of N.S, however even at these levels was noticeable, but went well with the cascade). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyG4 Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 in fairness, it was only 40g nelson... and there was 30g of galaxy as well... would it work if i dry hopped say, half a pellet of cascade when bottling? would that tone down/mask this white wine taste? after another hydrometer test tonight, god damn it's an awful, white wine flavoured beer... the only positive i can think of is that i have a lady friend who hated the dark beers that i've been making, she likes them much lighter. it was she who bought me the cerveza kit in the first place... and she also loves white wine. it could be good for something. maybe. i hope. who am i kidding? this rubbish beer will totally have been worth it if she likes it [cool] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 who am i kidding? this rubbish beer will totally have been worth it if she likes it [cool] I wouldnt add pellets to the bottle, as said before, get some flowers and do so when pouring... will totally be worth it if she puts out [ninja] [rightful] [lol] [bandit] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Beer and Flowers, the way to a womans...umm... heart?[biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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