I thought to share my experiences with this relatively cheap kit on this forum. If it is nice, it would mean great value for money. This is my second attempt at brewing a lager, and my 10th brew in total. As such, still relatively inexperienced, so would welcome your feedback.
I recently brewed a Brewferm Pils with Saflager W34/70 yeast and DME in a room where I turned off the heating, and found out temperature to remain pretty stable around 12*C. That beer is still too young, but already pretty nice to drink after two weeks conditioning (surprisingly).
I choose to replace the suggested 1kg of sugar by 1kg of DME and brewed to 23 litres. My intention was to brew 20 litres, but when taking the OG it came out higher than expected, so I topped it up to 23 litres and a more 'lager-like' OG of 1.043. I probably overshoot a little again, as I was aiming at 1.044, but hey.
I re-hydrated the Saflager W34/70 yeast at the suggested 23*C for 20 minutes and added to the wort which was 24*C. Just before closing the lid, I noticed the supplied (ale) yeast only measured 5g and decided to pitch this in as well. Not sure if that was a wise, spontaneous decision, but time will tell.
It fermented very well at 12*C and dropped to 1.012 after 7 days (which according to the kit is the FG when using malt extract). The sample tasted very flat, so decided to increase the amount for dry-hopping compared to the 12.5g of Saaz I used for the Brewferm Pils to 50g (in muslin bag). All activity stopped after 12 days, and tried to give the brew a diacetyl rest by bringing the fermenter back to room temperature. Interesting to note, the airlock became active again for about 12 hours. I guess that was the kit-yeast (ale) kicking in. By now, 14 days in the fermentation, the SG stands at 1.010 so I assume it is ready to bottle this weekend.
I'm trying to get my head around the following, and would welcome advice/opinions:
- As I over-pitched by using both sachets of yeast, would I need to rack this into an intermediary FV before the bottling bucket to avoid a yeasty beer?
- With more residual yeast (potentially) in the beer, would I need to adjust the amount of priming sugar?
- As the FG is a little below the expected gravity, should I adjust the amount of priming sugar upwards to carbonate this brew?
Thanks
Will keep you updated about this brew, but would welcome any feedback on the above.
update #1: bottled last Sunday (02/02), primed with 135g dextrose. So this should end up around 4.7%. It looked very cloudy when bottled, almost like a hefeweizen. Hope this will settle to a compact deposit.
Update #2: Just opened a bottle (07/02) to check on carbonation; good, persistent head with some lacing on the glass. So, moved to the cold room to condition. It has cleared a little, but still looks like a wheat/weizen/wit beer. Taste is okay, not as clean as I would have hoped it to be, but then it is way too young. Hope it will get more dry over the next month or two. If I were to brew this again, I would certainly add double the amount of Saaz for dry-hopping.
Update #3: (13/02). After about ten days cold conditioning, still cloudy but perhaps slightly more clear. Taste, however, has definitely got more clean and crisp. Promising.
Update #4: (21/02). Starting to clear, but yeast not very compacted and easy to disturb. Taste is getting more dry, crisp and really enjoyable/sessionable. Major problem: let girlfriend have a sip and that was the last I tasted of it. Will have to monitor the number of bottles I have from now on.
I recently brewed a Brewferm Pils with Saflager W34/70 yeast and DME in a room where I turned off the heating, and found out temperature to remain pretty stable around 12*C. That beer is still too young, but already pretty nice to drink after two weeks conditioning (surprisingly).
I choose to replace the suggested 1kg of sugar by 1kg of DME and brewed to 23 litres. My intention was to brew 20 litres, but when taking the OG it came out higher than expected, so I topped it up to 23 litres and a more 'lager-like' OG of 1.043. I probably overshoot a little again, as I was aiming at 1.044, but hey.
I re-hydrated the Saflager W34/70 yeast at the suggested 23*C for 20 minutes and added to the wort which was 24*C. Just before closing the lid, I noticed the supplied (ale) yeast only measured 5g and decided to pitch this in as well. Not sure if that was a wise, spontaneous decision, but time will tell.
It fermented very well at 12*C and dropped to 1.012 after 7 days (which according to the kit is the FG when using malt extract). The sample tasted very flat, so decided to increase the amount for dry-hopping compared to the 12.5g of Saaz I used for the Brewferm Pils to 50g (in muslin bag). All activity stopped after 12 days, and tried to give the brew a diacetyl rest by bringing the fermenter back to room temperature. Interesting to note, the airlock became active again for about 12 hours. I guess that was the kit-yeast (ale) kicking in. By now, 14 days in the fermentation, the SG stands at 1.010 so I assume it is ready to bottle this weekend.
I'm trying to get my head around the following, and would welcome advice/opinions:
- As I over-pitched by using both sachets of yeast, would I need to rack this into an intermediary FV before the bottling bucket to avoid a yeasty beer?
- With more residual yeast (potentially) in the beer, would I need to adjust the amount of priming sugar?
- As the FG is a little below the expected gravity, should I adjust the amount of priming sugar upwards to carbonate this brew?
Thanks
Will keep you updated about this brew, but would welcome any feedback on the above.
update #1: bottled last Sunday (02/02), primed with 135g dextrose. So this should end up around 4.7%. It looked very cloudy when bottled, almost like a hefeweizen. Hope this will settle to a compact deposit.
Update #2: Just opened a bottle (07/02) to check on carbonation; good, persistent head with some lacing on the glass. So, moved to the cold room to condition. It has cleared a little, but still looks like a wheat/weizen/wit beer. Taste is okay, not as clean as I would have hoped it to be, but then it is way too young. Hope it will get more dry over the next month or two. If I were to brew this again, I would certainly add double the amount of Saaz for dry-hopping.
Update #3: (13/02). After about ten days cold conditioning, still cloudy but perhaps slightly more clear. Taste, however, has definitely got more clean and crisp. Promising.
Update #4: (21/02). Starting to clear, but yeast not very compacted and easy to disturb. Taste is getting more dry, crisp and really enjoyable/sessionable. Major problem: let girlfriend have a sip and that was the last I tasted of it. Will have to monitor the number of bottles I have from now on.
