Is lager worth doing?

[Andyhull]

Hi all,

Is lager worth doing as home brew?

I began homebrewing to do mainly Real Ales, IPA's and Bitters (etc) but read alot about members doing lagers.
I like Stella as a lager, i think it has a better taste than most/all so would buy that if thats what i fancied!
I know there are speciality lagers that people do but wondered if generally with the price of lager being quite cheap is it worth spending the time and effort to do one?

Thanks

Andy

 

[anthonyUK]

In a word no but then a lot of what people make are not true lagers but they are however a decent enough brew when made well.
Try the Coopers APA made with either light LME/DME or their BE1. A hop addition would be even better.
It is similar enough to a lager for me but like you I prefer something a little darker and less gassy.

 

[Dave1970]

Yes it's worth doing, you should be able to get something nearer a real German or Czech lager and better than Stella
BUT it's not as simple as making Ale
I've not done one yet but I am planning to for my next brew..here's what I know (or think I know)
To make Lager you (not surprisingly) need to use Lager yeast - this needs to ferment at a lower temperature than Ale yeast, about 12 C so you'll need a way of keeping your fermenting brew cool (usually this'd be a fermenting fridge)
Once fermentation's done it needs to be laagered - meaning stored - this involves keeping it at a much lower temp (1 or 2 degrees ideally) for an extended time (maybe a month), so again a fridge is needed.
If you're bottling there's then another problem, the laagering should have completely dropped the yeast so there may not be enough yeast in suspension to get a secondary fermentation in the bottle and carbonate your beer so you have to seed each bottle with a tiny bit of yeast, I'm not totally clear on this because I'll force carbonate mine.
There are lager kits that use a neutral ale yeast instead and ferment at 'normal' temps, these will give results that are somewhere between real lager and ale, and some (especially coopers) are well thought of - check kit reviews section. I guess you could do an AG version of this. If you fancy a change from Ale I'd recommend Alemans Effin Erdinger weissbeer recipe, I thought it was a lovely beer - still needs some temp control though, but no extended laagering period.

 

[Swift Pint]

I think it depends on what you want to drink. For a Stella clone I probably wouldnt bother unless you fancy the challenge, as it widely available and IMO a bit boring, so I wouldnt think it worth the extra effort.
However for a nice Märzen / Oktoberfest then I'd be more tempted as I love these style beer. Having said that keeping the cool fermentation temperatures, as Dave says, pretty much needs a fermentation fridge, so I've not had a chance to brew a proper lager yet.

You could always attemp a lager-type beer by using a kolsch yeast - this is an ale yeast, so will ferment at ale temperatures but will give you a clean crips flavour like a lager. I've done a few kolsches using 100% vienna malt for the grist and they've turned out great, nice and refreshing with a decent malt flavour.

 

[fbsf]

In a word no but then a lot of what people make are not true lagers but they are however a decent enough brew when made well.
Try the Coopers APA made with either light LME/DME or their BE1. A hop addition would be even better.
It is similar enough to a lager for me but like you I prefer something a little darker and less gassy.

+1 for this. Served cold in a lager glass, a lot of people wouldn't notice it isn't lager - and it brews the same as an ale, so no temperature control needed - just try and keep it below 20C to keep the flavours clean.

 

[Andyhull]

Thanks for the responces guys.
Still none the wiser. :lol:

 

[Wendy1971]

I brew lagers and ive never had a bad un yet yeah give it a whirl its deffo worth it Andy :thumb:

 

[Andyhull]

Is that kit lagers Wendy?

 

[Wendy1971]

no AG

 

[Wendy1971]

me and mark did a kit lager and it came out really nice :thumb:

 

[Andyhull]

Ahh, im not quite there yet.
I have all the kit apart from the chiller but OH won't take too kindly to me having a brewday when there are so many things that still need doing in the house before our little one arrives.

 

[Wendy1971]

got ya theres no rush youll have your hands full soon :)

 

[Andyhull]

I know, 3 of them
One 8 one 4 and one none all girls :lol:

 

[Aleman]

Is lager worth doing as home brew? <snip> I like Stella as a lager, <snip> I know there are speciality lagers that people do but wondered if generally with the price of lager being quite cheap is it worth spending the time and effort to do one?

If you are talking about general Eurotrash fizzy lagers then probably not.

In a word no but then a lot of what people make are not true lagers but they are however a decent enough brew when made well.
Try the Coopers APA made with either light LME/DME or their BE1. A hop addition would be even better.
It is similar enough to a lager for me but like you I prefer something a little darker and less gassy.

+1 for this. Served cold in a lager glass, a lot of people wouldn't notice it isn't lager - and it brews the same as an ale, so no temperature control needed - just try and keep it below 20C to keep the flavours clean.

Most kit's make a generic 'ale' and if that is what you are referring to then I am almost tempted to agree with you, but there is a world of difference between a pseudo lager made as you describe and a crafted kit lager made from a premium kit with premium adjuncts.

Andy, If you can keep you temperature reasonably cool (say around 15C) and constant then it is worth doing a premium kit, unfortunately decent lager kits are expensive (Barons Premium are amazingly good . . 30 quid nothing to add . . . Perhaps Brewferms lager yeast)

Of course for 'good enough' brewers it probably is unnecessary, but craft brewers have a different outlook on what is a 'good' beer

 

[uncleinan]

In a word no but then a lot of what people make are not true lagers but they are however a decent enough brew when made well.
Try the Coopers APA made with either light LME/DME or their BE1. A hop addition would be even better.
It is similar enough to a lager for me but like you I prefer something a little darker and less gassy.

I agree with this 100%. I have done a Coopers APA and dry hopped it with cascades. Served chilled it is great...looks like lager and is nice and fizzy. Initial taste is lagery with a hoppy kick. To be honest with you I find it difficult to drink 4% commercial lagers now. They taste too sweet and chemically in my opinion.

 

[zgoda]

I love my home brewed lagers: pilsners, marzen, polotmave and bocks. I see no point in making what you can cheaply buy in stores.

 

[Swift Pint]

Zgoda, what is a polotmave? I couldnt understand any of the pages that came up on Google, but google images made me thirsty! Is it a dark/amber Polish lager?

 

[zgoda]

It's Czech. An amber lager, very delicate and smooth. Similar to BJCP's Vienna Lager style, but brewed with Czech hops and often of lower gravity, 1.044-1.046 is perhaps most common. Rare thing in bottles, even in Czech Rep. these days, but popular in brewpubs (minipivovary).

This weekend I was in Olomouc and Cesky Tesin, spent good time at U Konicka in Vojkovice with their Grosak Polotmavy Lezak, it was delicious. :)

 

[oldjiver]

Ahh, im not quite there yet.
I have all the kit apart from the chiller but OH won't take too kindly to me having a brewday when there are so many things that still need doing in the house before our little one arrives.

You'll need a drink then!! :

 

[Springer]

Well Z, if your not going to tell em I am :lol:

Nice looking recipe that Z posted a few weeks ago

I'm getting a sack of Pilsner malt to give this one a good go this winter, looks good to me
S