Northern Brewster

Northern Brewster

Having had a few cans of lager the other night I thought it would be nice to try and brew something along those lines. However I have no temperature controlled environment for fermenting.

I have brewed Kölsch a few times and a cream ale but this time I’m aiming for something a little sharper. I’ll be using the MJ California lager yeast which I have used before on the cream ale.

Have a look and see what you think.

10 litre batch

1.3kg Pilsner Malt
0.5kg Vienna Malt
0.1kg Carapils

20g Tettnanger @60
5g Spalt @ 60
8g Tettnanger @ 10

2g Irish Moss @ 10

IBUs 28.6
SG 1047
FG 1012
ABV 4.6%



5 comments

  1. Nothing at all wrong with the grain bill but my bill would have malted wheat rather than carapils since I would want a dry beer.

    Saaz, Spalt and Tettnanger are so similar I’d just use one or the other unless I was using up hops I already had in the freezer.

    I would boil for 90mins, add 50% hops after 30 mins, 25% after 60 mins, 25% after 70 mins, amounts adjusted to keep IBUs right. This is how I make all my German style beers (which this isn’t really but you asked for a comment and I’m bored).

  2. Thanks for the input Robert. I do want a drier beer so will swap the carapils for wheat malt. I planned to use the Tettnang because I didn’t particularly like the saaz when I used it last. Tettnang however is one of my favorites and I have used it in my Kölsch recipe. The spalt was left over in my freezer as you guessed and so I’ll throw it in anyway.

    I can’t make a real lager at present as I have no means of, well, lagering it, but something light, fizzy and refreshing with a bit of bite was what I was after.

    Glad I could help a bit with the boredom [smile]

  3. I found that keeping a pale ale at 3 degrees for three months turned it into something very much like lager.

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