1st proper lager

[brydo]

hi guys, i got my coopers heritage lager kit today and also asked the gut in the home brew store for some lager yeast. he gave mangrove jacks lager yeast. my questions are

1. the kit calls for1.5kg of coopers light malt extract, but i dont have this, would 1kg of coopers brew enhancer work the same ?

2. the lager yeast calls for two sachets for 23 litres, thats 20 grams of yeast but the kit came with a 7g sachet, just seems a huge difference

any advice would be great, cheers

 

[MtirKiesh]

Hi brydo,
I have brewed the heritage lager a few times now, it's a great kit imo. I have also tried several different things to see whether it made any improvements but if I'm honest the kits holds up pretty good. I have tried different yeasts but the kit yeast again holds up.

The coopers brew inhancer is fine for this kit although I wouldn't try and use it to carb the beer as I found it made it a bit too fizzy just use ordinary sugar.

If it were me I would just use the kit yeast as I've never had any issues with it. Can't really give an answer as to why you need you need 2 sachets of the mangrove yeast. Hope this helps.::

 

[mook1979]

Hi,

The first thing to think about is the fermentation temperature. About a third of my brews are lagers and I go through a lot of trouble to ferment at around 12C without a brew fridge. I do not lager the beer afterwards and I am happy with the results. I will probably be corrected on this, but due to the colder fermentation temperature, more yeast is needed, since they work a bit slower at these cold temperatures. This will also ensure that you do not get any off flavours and end up with a clean tasting beer.

Depending on what you are after, you should still end up with a decent beer if you only pitch the one packet.

 

[Sandimas]

I've done proper Coopers lager several times fermenting around 13/14C (latest one just finishing off now) and they've all been fine with just the fairly meagre kit yeast, just re-hydrate it to give it a good start (I added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient to the wort too).