Help if possible.

[cerevisia]

Hello,

I'm going to attempt to make a bland Corona type beer for a friend of mine - still not too sure what sort of ingredients to use. So far I'm going with lager grain, pale malt, light malt extract, rice flakes, and little to no hops of any kind (probably Sticklebract). Am I on the right track here?

Cheers!

[JoKing]

What's your homebrew system like? Can you do all grain?

I'd recommend for 20 Litres about:

3kg Weyermann Pilsner Malt
.5 kg Flaked rice
500g Sugar

15 IBU of hops boiled for 60mins

Lager yeast is is essential for this - maybe s-23 if you cant find a decent liquid strain. Fermented at 12 degrees if possible.

[cerevisia]

Hmmm, ok. I've only ever done a partial mash. I'd probably do about 1.5 pounds of the lager malt and use malt extract (1.8 kg's) oh yeah, I have the lager yeast (that normally takes a bit longer to ferment, right?)

Thanks for your advice!

[JoKing]

Thats right - are you able to control the fermentation temp? Make sure you get the freshest extract you can find - it'll be too dark if it's old. Probably be quite difficult to get anything fresh enough at Great Expectations!

[cerevisia]

Ah ok. Fermentation temp isn't so bad here (I'm in Karori so it's normally pretty stable, and being a lager it's normally ok if the temp is below 15 degrees thankfully.)

Yeah Great Expectations, are good but limited. I normally go on a big spending spree there once a month. Mainly hops and a few grains. I wonder, would adding some pale malt be ok?

[JoKing]

It'll be fine - but the idea is to make it as light in colour as possible. If you dont mind it being a bit darker, then go for it! It'll be nice to drink - especially if you keep it around that 15 degree mark.

[MrC]

Are you open to a kit based version?

How about a Corona style kit (Brewcraft Mexican Cerveza?) and two 500g bags of wheat DME.
Boil & cool 20L of water first, then boil 2-3L, add the kit & extract, stir, bring back to boil (just), then cool & pitch. S23 @ 12C or maybe US-05 @ 18C?

I did something similar with a lager yeast last year and won best lager kit at the NHC. A relative of mine who is highly experienced in the drinking of light commercial beers thought it was great.

[cerevisia]

Awesome, thanks! How long do you reckon I ferment it for? I've never really made a lager before, I normally do Pale Ales, Wheat Beers and Stouts and those I ferment for around 7 days. Don't lagers take a bit longer?

[MrC]

My lager was 3 weeks at 12C. I would have done 4 weeks but had to bottle it for the comp.

[JoKing]

Some times the most simple of solutions can be so easily overlooked. Excellent advise Mr Cherry - I totally agrre with using DME and a Kit... great thinking!

[Stu McKinlay]

Invert sugar will help keep flavour and colour down. Recipe is on wikipedia if you search on invert sugar. I'd replace one bag of Mr Cherry's DME with that.