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BREWING IN WINTER When winter is upon us, it is time to start thinking about making your best quality lagers. The History Many people stop brewing during winter but it is in fact the best time of the year to brew. The Oktoberfest in Germany is actually a festival celebrating the re opening of the breweries in October, which in Europe is late autumn. The central Europeans discovered many years ago that the cold weather made their beers much clearer and also more importantly resulted in much cleaner tasting beers. This is the origin of all lager style beers. These days the breweries operate all year round, due to the advent of refrigeration. Obviously not everyone has access to refrigeration so we home brewers use the next best thing, winter. The Principles There are dozens of different strains of yeast available to breweries today. They fall into two distinct categories. The yeast supplied with home brew kits is always an ale type, as this functions within the temperature range most easily achieved by home brewers. This is despite the fact that the beers the are trying to emulate are in many cases lager or pilsener types. Most European and Australian commercially produced beers use the bottom fermenting or lager yeasts. Lager yeasts operate best at temperatures ranging from between 8 and 14 degrees. Winter temperatures provide a good environment to brew with low temperature lager yeasts in the back shed or in a cool room inside the house. All of this talk about fermenting at colder temperatures will
no doubt come as a bit of a shock to most people, especially if
you have been following the instructions on the cans of brewing
concentrate which call for temperatures of 18 to 24 degrees and
above. There are good reasons why these temperatures are recommended.
The main reason for the higher temperatures being recommended is
most kit yeasts will not function properly below 16 to 18 degrees.
In short, these have been picked because of their ability to operate
under a wide range of temperatures, making them more user friendly. THE PROCEDURE The first thing to do is select the appropriate yeast for the beer you want to make. Rather than go into a detailed explanation of all the different varieties available, it would be much easier to follow the types we have recommended in the list of recipes that follow. The procedure for this type of brewing is no different as far as mixing ingredients goes - the only difference occurs with the fermentation. The easiest way to explain any procedure is with the use of an example, so I will go through the procedure for a typical lager recipe and you can apply this method to your own recipe or standard kit.
1 Can of Bacchus & Barley Lager Boil 20 grams of the hops in 2 litres of litre of water for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the remainder of the hops, put the lid on the pot and allow to soak for 2-3 minutes. Strain through a kitchen strainer into the brew. The boiled hops will add a little bitterness and lots of flavour to the brew while the soak will bring out the aroma. Simply follow the instructions for a normal brew, but replace the sugar called for on the can instructions with the malt extract in the recipe. Pour the contents of the Saflager sachet into the fermenter (Do not add the standard yeast!). The brew should start to ferment within 12 to 24 hours. Allow it to ferment at room temperature for 12 hours or so and then move it into your cold garage or wherever you are planning to brew it. Fermentation will take longer than normal but shouldn’t be drastically increased. If it does take a little longer don’t be too concerned. It is always best with any lager fermentation to warm the fermenter to 18 deg C – 20 deg C for the last couple of days to allow the fermentation to completely stop before bottling. This will reduce the chance of the beer being overcarbonated. Beer brewed using Lager yeast will not need to be kept warm in the bottle to carbonate, so you can just leave the bottles in the garage and they will carbonate perfectly. Wyeast Liquid Yeast Cultures You will notice that most of the recipes indicate a choice of two yeasts. If you have never brewed cold before I would suggest you start by using the Saflager lager yeast first and then trying the liquid yeasts. Wyeast cultures are among the highest quality yeasts available and are used in commercial breweries around the world, but they are a little more finicky to use. The surest and safest way to use this yeast is to start it fermenting in a starter bottle. Follow the method described for doing this on the yeast package. For further information on this, ask for a copy of our ‘Yeast’ brochure. When using liquid yeasts it is very important to adhere to the instructions regarding the temperature of fermentation, as it is very easy to produce fruity flavoured beers if you aren’t careful with temperature control. Reusing Wyeast Cultures Due to the higher cost and special qualities of this yeast it makes good sense to reuse them several times. This is simple to do and safe, with little risk of infection. The procedure is as follows: When your brew us at the height of its fermentation, usually around the three to four day mark, tap off 600-700 ml of the fermenting beer into a sterilized soft drink bottle (plastic) and seal it tight. Allow this to ferment a further 12-24 hours and then put the bottle in your fridge. It is important to make sure that the bottle has plenty of pressure in it when it is placed in the fridge. The cold will put the yeast on hold until you are ready to use it again. To reactivate the yeast it is simply a matter of taking the bottle out of the fridge one day before you want to brew, giving it a good shake and allowing it to stand in a warm, dark spot. When the contents of the bottle start to ferment it is read to add to your next brew. This procedure can be repeated two to three times before the yeast may mutate and affect the flavour of the brew. As we tend not to have sterile conditions in our homes it makes good sense to reuse the yeast as soon as possible, preferably within a week or two. RECIPES PALE MUNICH LAGER 1 tin of Coopers Bavarian Lager DARK MUNICH LAGER 1 Tin of Bacchus & Barley Burton
Ale BOCK 1 Tin Black Rock Bock CZECH PILSNER This is a classic beer from Central Europe, which is typically malty with a long, dry finish brought about by a high level of bitterness. If you don’t like hops in your beer I would suggest this isn’t the beer for you. 1 Can of Coopers Brewmaster Pilsener TOOHEYS DRY STYLE 1 Can of Bacchus & Barley Draught These are just a few types for you to try. You may also like to try some of the recipes in our brochure, ‘Your First Brew’, using the cold brewing method. The Vic Bitter style, Fosters Lager style as well as the European Pilsener would be good ones to try. Hopefully we will have got you interested enough to have a go at brewing quality lagers in winter. If you do I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. If you need any assistance at all, don’t hesitate to call us. Note: A mild sulphur smell during fermentation is normal when
using low temperature yeasts and will disappear with maturation. |
