1St lager, great taste....but flat as a fluke.

[Mark4653]

Hi all.

Can i just take the time to say that i'm not very experienced in the homebrew world! (but i've now got the bug)

I've made for my first attempt a ''packet recipe'' Kit. just add sugar and water.

Its come to the end of it's time now going by the instructions, it's a kit called geordies, made it as it said on the tin and even used the 1kg of beer enhancer which it states on the tin. only cost £15.00 in total and a bit of time, so for the first attemp i'm quite chuffed.

As i say it tastes great, but its flat, not fizzy as you would expect lager to be. that said it kind of tastes like flat carling.

is there any way of making it fizzy without buying loads of expensive equiptment? (sounds stupid but would a soda stream work)? am I doing something wrong? as i've followed the in :wha: structions to the letter?!?!?

The lager is sat quite happy in a pressure barrel (King keg with lastock eay serve float system) i have a co2 canister which fits on the top but am i correct in, this will onlt push the lager out of the barrel and not make it ''fizzy''?

thanks for the help......and here's looking forward to making a new batch. any advice would be greatly received. :wha: :thumb:

 

[dandan]

To get the fizzyness you need to prime the bottles/barrel with sugar/spraymalt when filling them, then leave it for 3/4weeks to mature and for the yeast to produce c02 form the sugars (also creating fizzyness), Bitter/ale is better for kegs as they do not hold the pressure that lager needs, so lager is best in bottles! :thumb:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Hi and welcome to the forum :thumb:
The problem is that the keg you are using cannot hold sufficient pressure to give the carbonation level that you are looking for in your lager King kegs are fine for serving ales but not highly carbonated lagers.
You can still bottle your lager using 1/2 tsp sugar per pint, it will take a couple of weeks to come back into condition though

 

[Mark4653]

thanks for both the reply's i really wanted it to be left in a keg if possible as i was planning to use and then do another batch once this has gone, is there such a thing as a lager keg to hold the pressure?
:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Yep it's called a Cornelius keg :thumb:
The kegs are cheaper than king kegs, but they do need a reasonable CO2 source and regulator