Cal

After many successful pale ales, both american and pommy styles, i'm finally getting around to brewing my first lager, a Bohemian Pilsner to be precise.

20g Czech Saaz boiled for 10mins
20g Czech Saaz soaked for 2mins
1 x G & G Fresh Wort #2
Topped up to 22lt
Saf Lager S-23 pitched at 22c, aerated 30mins later with a brisk stir, now in the fermentation fridge cooling down to 12c for the duration.

I've been reading up on the lagering process....

Well, not much to report really.

I'm completely hooked on Grain & Grape Artisanale Fresh Worts. It's a little more expensive than the partials, but the beer is amazing.

All i've been doing is getting a #2 wort, dry hopping a variety of hops and using either US-05 or Wyeast liquid.

They are then in primary for 7 days, crash chilled for 2-3 days and then kegged. The kegs are then chilled for 3 days, then I rack via a beer->beer hose i've made up into...

I bottled up a fresh wort Amarillo yesterday coz both kegs are still working. Well, it's not all Amarillo, i dry hopped a little Nelson Sauvin for something a little different. One hop beers can get a bit samey.

On Saturday I went to an All Grain demo. It was a good experience and the fella running it was a wealth of information on all sort of brewing topics. I asked him plenty of questions and ultimately I came away with a much better understanding of the process.

...

My first batch fermented in the new fridge went into the keg last night. Force carbonated and tasted 1 hour later. Great beer once again, actually better than expected considering I used a kit as a base, not a fresh wort.

It was this:

ESB 3kg Pale Ale
250g Carapils - steeped
25g Cascade @ 10mins
5g Chinnook @ 10mins
25g Cascade dry
5g Chinnook dry
US05 yeast

Fermented at 18 celcius for 7 days, racked for 4 days, crash chilled...

New fridge to be used as fermentation fridge. I've ordered a temp controller for it. Bottles will be secondary fermented in there too.

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Keg fridge. 2 x 18lt plus gun.

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