Mixed emotions

[jt]

I'm excited ... oooohhhhh ... watch out beer ... hhmmmmmm !

I was very please with the extract & grains Pils I brewed with cali lager yeast @ 16-18C.

Next up was the grain version and it's had two weeks primary and 10 days in seconday so I thought I'd better look at kegging and bottling the rest.

Thought there's only a pint, maybe two of the extract one left in the keg and I'd polish them off with the hot dogs for tea last night.

WRONG - four pints later I was a bit worse for wear and seemingly nowhere nearer having an empty keg. Being an impatient little drinker, I decided that the rest of the week was looking a tad busy so I'd bottle half a doz 750ml bottles for good measure.

Well the four pints was a bad move, but the tastes of the new brew were excellent ! This has given me a renewed enthusiasm for lager.

Sadly I don't think Santa will be bringing a dedicated fermenting fridge this year so I'm tempted to wish for a delayed start to summer so I can get a few more down before the ambient temperature climbs too high for uncontrolled fermentation.

[Dan]

Some of the lagers Ive done have turned out exceptional, most are reaso!
Big starters, low temps, not too much flavouring hops and long conditioning have produced some of the best beer ive drunk!, its been a while since I can say Ive made a really good lager, been a bit too heavy in the late hops recently which has spoiled some of them!
Wyeast Bavarian yeast is my lager yeast of choice from what ive used anyway!
Its too warm here without a fridge to be doing lagers now, my last one 2 weeks ago fermented at 18-20, after an unexpected temperature rise, 2 weeks till the big 1 month north island holiday and a whole month away from brewing, might have to get a couple of ales down and racked for the duration!

[jt]

The thing that got me was the difference between the extract version - which seemed thick, heavy and syrupy and the grain which was light and efferevescent in comparison.
Don't they say a good lager is hard to do - there's nowhere to hide the faults ? try hiding them under heaps of hops maybe ?
Is Santa bringing you a fermentation fridge Dan ?

[Dan]

Its not likely Jt! would prefer a kegging setup though! im using up the towns supply of bottle tops!