Kiwi Lager
This was my second attempt at making a Lager, well third but we don’t count the first as that was a bit of a disaster and tasted foul.
I spent quite a bit of time travelling around New Zealand, one of there lagers they have there (Steinlager) uses Green bullet hops. This beer acts as a reminder to the fun I had down there.
I start out with a basic lager kit, Brewmaker Basic Lager, you then take the yeast from the kit and ceremoniously throw it into the dustin, or at the cat whichever you prefer. To make a good lager you need a good bottom fermenting yeast, I use a Saflager S23 yeast. Saflager yeast produces a good lager, although it tends to make the lager quite dry, so to compliment the yeast I added 100grms of light spray dried malt, using a little malt just stops it getting too dry.
I simmer 25grms of green bullet hops, the malt and 400grms of glucose in about 1l of water. I let it simmer for about 10 mins. Then you strain out the hops and add the malty, hoppy liquid to the fermenter, then add the contents of the beer kit. Top up to 40 pints with water.
I start the brew at around 20C, this allows the yeast to get started. The critical thing about making lager is once the yeast is away and doing it’s stuff is that you reduce the temperature of the wort to around 13-14C. This is the big difference with lager and ale. Ale yeast at this temp would curl up and die, lager yeast on the other hand likes the cool temperature and continues fermenting. By fermenting at this cool temperature the yeast produces a very clean flavour, giving the clean crisp taste associated with lager.
It takes a little longer to complete the brewing process around 2 weeks. Bottle and prime the beer as normal. Lager is generally best if left to stand for a couple of months. So it’s a good idea to brew during the winter ready for the summer BBQ season.
This is a nice lager recipe, although to be truely like Steinlager it probably need more hops. I thinks it a tastey beer non the less, and still reminds me of my time in New Zealand.
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