Geordie Lager

[Frazinho]

G'day folks. I'm after a bit of advice. I'm brewing a batch of Geordie lager for my folks for a competition with their local wine club. I've mainly used brewferm kits and I've just made a batch of evil dog double IPA which I think have been a success. Is there anything I can add to the Geordie kit to give it a bit more flavour? Would anyone recommend hops or perhaps other things like orange peel? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MyQul]

Firstly are you wanting a lager or ale. Sounds an obvious question seeing as though you have bought a geordie lager kit but a lot of lager kits actually come with ale yeast so you can't make a lager with the kit any way. Then even if you have lager yeast you have to put the kit through the lagering process which is basically cold (about 12C) fermentation followed by very cold (about 3C) conditioning. This takes either a brew fridge to do or winter.

Having said all that you can dry hop or add some hop tea to improve the flavour as well as steep some grains and add the resultunt liquid. If you really want to go for it you could buy a 'specialist' liquid yeast

 

[Toredan]

I'm sure others will chime in but I've read this forum a lot so will take a shot at answering. You could always steep some grains like crystal in some hot water (65-70) before mixing in the wort. This would be a mini-mash then which is the same process with AG but instead of using a base malt you use the wort for that. Orange peel, spices etc can be added once fermentation ends. If you wanted to add hops to bitter you'd need to boil them in water much like the process for an all-grain beer, adding them at different times before mixing in your wort. However if you wanted to dry-hop then just chuck them in after the beer has fermented out for a few days. I had terrible luck using that kit (and any other kit to be honest) so for specific recommendations for THAT kit someone else will have to answer. :)

 

[MyQul]

I'm sure others will chime in but I've read this forum a lot so will take a shot at answering. You could always steep some grains like crystal in some hot water (65-70) before mixing in the wort. This would be a mini-mash then which is the same process with AG but instead of using a base malt you use the wort for that.

Just to seperate out terms, steeping and doing a mini mash are similar but seperate things. With steeping your putting the grains in hot (but not boiling) water to extract flavours, (a small amount of) sugars and colour (it's also possible to cold steep some types of grains) with mini mashing your doing something very similar in that your putting the grains in hot water but your using enzymes in the grain to to create sugars. With mashing temperatures and times are far more important than steeping

 

[Toredan]

Just to seperate out terms, steeping and doing a mini mash are similar but seperate things. With steeping your putting the grains in hot (but not boiling) water to extract flavours, (a small amount of) sugars and colour (it's also possible to cold steep some types of grains) with mini mashing your doing something very similar in that your putting the grains in hot water but your using enzymes in the grain to to create sugars. With mashing temperatures and times are far more important than steeping

Thanks for the correction, now I know :)

 

[Frazinho]

Thanks for the suggestions! Great advice.

 

[ericmark]

I added a can of Scottish heavy and over filled the fermentor to within two inch off the top and reduced sugar to one bag. It just failed to come out through the air lock kept a 19.5 degrees and kept for 4 months before drinking and I was really satisfied with the result but a little on the high alcohol side I would guess around the 6%.

Basic is I don't like lager but the Geordie lager was £7 per can in Morisons so could not resist. My attempts at swapping yeast with a Lager kit were a total failure. On reflection kits use tap water so should not be done slowly when the kit says lager it really means a light ale it is not lager and unless you boil all water used don't try lager yeast.

Ups just noted as drinking as I write it was brewmaker lager and geordie bitter started 13 feb bottled 6 march start s.g. 1.058 finish 1.008 and 1.5 kg sugar so around 6.6% ABV. A really nice pint. As to orange I made an error cleaning a bottle which had orange juice in and the brew was A1. Tried adding orange juice to brew after and it never seemed to work. I have tried licorice root which worked well but was told I was lucky. When I brew at around 6 days I transfer to clean fermentor it would be just as easy to use 6 demijohns so you have 6 stabs at what will work. That way only 2 litres wasted if it goes wrong.

 

[clibit]

Advice depends on how much brewing experience you have. If little, my advice would be three simple things. Keep the fermentation cool. About 16C if you can. It'll take longer but lagers take longer. Use brewing sugar rather than white granulated sugar. And get some hops and put them in the fermenter when the fermentation has stopped, leave them in 3 to 5 days then bottle or keg the beer. You could use Saaz hops, traditional lager hop, but I think you can really lift a kit lager by using Motueka or Wakatu hops, which are New Zealand versions of Saaz and German Hallertau hops, and have a brighter fruitier flavour. Worth the extra expense.