Kit O' Beer #11 - New World Lager

[Glass]

KoB #11. New World Lager. Been doing a bit of reading. Some have suggested dry hopping a Coopers Australian Lager with Columbus hops can lead to good things. I'm all for good things and was not really keen on doing a straight kit of this again. I've skipped it a couple times already.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers Australian Lager.
1 kg Coopers Brew Enhancer #2
250gms approx Coopers dry LME
SafAle US-04 Ale Yeast 11gms
~23 gms Columbus pellet hops - dry hop secondary.

Making it up as we go. I have no idea what Columbus hops are like. Not even sure I can get them yet.

OG 1.042

Brew temp: 17C - ambient
Pitch temp: 20C - wort
Current temp: 20C - wort
Volume: 23L

Notes: Ambient is cool. I've got 2 fermenters now under the blanket. The dry hopping one has been running a bit hot today at 24C. This brew is sitting at 19 - 20C. So one needs to come up and one down.

Need to keep an eye on it for a bit but we have weekend to baby it. I might move #10 outside blanket for last day. Bottle Sunday probably.

Its fairly malty in smell. Doesn't seem any more than others I've done. This DLME was very clumpy. Was a lot like honeycomb candy. Looks dark but previous lagers were the same.

[Libertytree]

I think you'll like the Columbus hops, great bittering with a little edge to it. I've used them many times and always liked the results.

[Glass]

might need to rename this one Old World Lager. Had no luck turning up some Columbus hops. I get the impression they can't be had in my town. The usual place had none but their web site says they sell it. No info on if any was coming in. Too busy this morning for much chit chat or answer questions. Too far to go to the other 2 HBS just for hops.

Went to a 2nd store and they never stock it. Hallertau hops was what I ended up with. A Euro style hop. Thought about Centennial, Amarillo and one other that escapes me, maybe was Citra. Anyway this has floral and orange citrus influences. It won't be exactly what I was shooting for but I guess we'll go with it. Should have bought these at the regular show because it was less than half the price there.

Still open to suggestions if you think something would go better. Not dry hopping for at least a week. I'm looking for citrus and fruits. Don't really want super bitter although Columbus does have some bitter intensity to it from what I am told by LT and the web.

Standing in the queue at the LHBS its pretty evident that Aussie home brewers are a hairy bunch.

[Libertytree]

The Hallertau is a lot milder than the Columbus, thats fer sure. I used the Hallertau as a finishing hop, for it's aroma, along with the Tettnang.

You may want to call around and see if they have any hops with higher acidity. If my memory serves me the hallertau is about 7-8%.

[BrewTech]

The Hallertau is a lot milder than the Columbus, thats fer sure. I used the Hallertau as a finishing hop, for it's aroma, along with the Tettnang.

You may want to call around and see if they have any hops with higher acidity. If my memory serves me the hallertau is about 7-8%.

Hallertau is a German noble hop. Nothing like Columbus in character... in fact they are almost diametrically opposed, so to speak. Hallertau AA% is generally around 4%... Columbus can be as high as 17%. Columbus is a great all-purpose hop. I use it for bittering in my IPA, but also dry-hop with it. The 2013 crop came in at 15.6% and seriously dank... dry hopped a cask for my only commercial account and went a bit overboard for 5 gallons (like 3 oz in the cask on top of 1.5 lbs/barrel in the fermenter)... holy crap! The results were epic.

[Libertytree]

Thanks for the correction BT, my memory serves me not! lol

[Glass]

yes I thought this would be milder and some other word, I don't know how to describe it. I have in my head what I think this will be like after drinking a ship load of euro beers. As I said I should change it to Old World now because it's a euro hop. Will be interesting to see how it sits with this beer.

Got to think of something to brew next. I've been looking around at other kits. Something that has hops and maybe specialty grains in it. Mangrove jacks have a couple interesting ones. Coopers do a Recipe of the month and they have a heap of recipes as well. I'm doing another cascadian blonde next. Thats nearly gone. Was a winner all round.

I'm thinking amber ale or english mid or mild bitter for the second one.

http://mangrovejacks.com/collections/craft-series-brewery-box
There is a Columbus APA on there. new world theme and everything. Also the Lord Finster looks interesting. Can't find local yet. not cheap. needs to be fresh.

or a cascarillo pale ale instead of the blonde.

[Glass]

Ok so I tested this one 2 times

Friday morning it was 1.016.
Sunday afternoon is was 1.013

Still a little time to go. Fermentation has been going on at a steady 19C. Seems the electric blanket on #2 can hold it there, even though to me I can hardly feel any heat being generated.

I was hoping to have this racked to secondary before the weekend was done. Seems we might be waiting a few more days. I can detect butterscotch in the taste. I was contemplating lifting the temps to about 22-23C for a couple days then turning off the heat altogether for a couple days. Give it that rest period. Maintaining at 22-23C would be a bit difficult. I have found it tends to overshoot to 24C+ which would not be ideal.

I need another timer that can do this kind of 24hr sequence.

[Libertytree]

Oh yeah, the dreaded butterscotch! Even a slight taste of it warrants holding off on the racking.

[Glass]

ok so this beer hit a SG of 1.010 on Thursday. I went and scored a plastic water jerry can and a spigot. I figured I would dry hop into this one and I can always use it for lagering if I get into that. I expect I will. I now have 2 fermenters going with KoB #12 (regular 30L barrel fermenter) and #14 (coopers fermenter) and in the middle I have this one. At the moment I have then lined up with the electric blanket over them.

I had the blanket running on full Saturday before I racked #11 from the coopers fermenter. So I had just the 2 fermenters, KoB #12 got very warm and was pushing 25C before I noticed it. I dumped the heat and uncovered everything. Fortunately the ambient is only about 14C inside so it dropped fairly quickly. KoB #12 was really going off with the yeast. I'm liking this yeast. It can take 1 -2 days to get going but when it does it goes ballistic.

Back to the topic. We racked this one so we could dry hop it. I purchased the hops at least a week ago. Can't recall but I couldn't find any Colombus so went with Hallertau hops. I bought these from a different brew shop. The price was quite high at $4.00 per 1/2oz. The regular LHBS does 100gm/3oz for $10.00. So $8.00 vs $3.30 per ounce.

I'm not sure how fresh these were. The smell was mild, which is what I anticipated because I think it's more of a noble hop style. One saving grace for these hops was that they were already in hop bags, tea bag type thing. You are supposed to steep these in water before adding to brew at the start. As I was not adding to the start of the brew, I just tossed these into the fermenter as is. I assume that they will remain contained in the bags or if the bags will fall apart. The instructions say to throw them into the fermenter so we should be ok.

I'll probably bottle this one on Friday.

[Glass]

Bottled tonight. I seem to be meandering along and bottling takes some time. The jerry can seems ok as a secondary. These 15gms/ 0.5 Oz hops in a tea bag would be the maximum size you would use with the size opening in the container. They swell to 5 or 6 times the size. A longer sock might be easier to get out.

Beer is very clear. I bulk primed 165gms/5.8Oz dextrose. The aroma is present in the fermenter but when I drew a small sample in a glass the hop aroma was not very noticable. The beers flavour is noticeably influenced by the hops. You get a strong european flavour. It is only 1 hop being used. I don't think it is going to be a complex beer. We will test in a couple of weeks.

[Glass]

Tried a couple of these in the past few days. 1 from my conditioning storage at home and one from the machine room at work. Clearly the extra few degrees have made a difference. The one from home was flat sugar water. The one from work was just starting to get carbonated.

Colour is a clear amber. It is lighter than the original Lager I did in KoB #1. It's the same kit so not sure why.

You would not find the hop aroma in this beer unless you knew what you are smelling for. It is very faint. It has a nice aroma and I think takes the edge off of the coopers lager. I can't quite pin down one of the aromas but I am getting a slight orange on the front of the palate and an aniseed, liquorice type flavour on the back. Its extremely faint but it is there.

As I said, this makes a nice drinker. Someone would probably think it was a euro beer. It reminds me of a dutch beer I drank a fair bit of for a while... the name is coming to me. It was actually called something like orange flower. Oranjeboom. The name is more about the Dutch national colour and the royal family but I think this beer is a similar flavour to that beer.

Its another beer that I would brew again. I might increase the hops or use some fresher ones. I think the ones I bought were a bit faded for smell. I know it's not a strong hop but the aroma was faint from the packet. I would buy another brand of hop.

I'm still looking for columbus hops. Will do that in this kit when I can find some.

[Glass]

had one of these the other day. The beer is fine. It's clean and brighter than a larger which it is based on. The hops are not really prominent. I was struggling to pick them out only I know that what the base larger is like and how this makes it less malty and a bit like a bright ale. Honey appearance.

So nothing wow here but pleasant. Less twang than the straight larger making it smoother. It is more sophisticated. I'm now thinking honey in this would be interesting. I thinking wild turkey honey liqueur. I would do this style again. Try for some fresher/more hops.