Mangrove jacks dutch lager kit. Lager yeast under the lid?

[daft-and-dank]

Just got done with my first brew in about 8 years. Probably my first real brew really.

I used the yeast supplied with the kit and noticed something interesting. The first few days the fermenter was letting off quite abit of sulfur'y smelling stuff, enough that you would notice it but not enough to be massively offensive (fermenting in a closet in my bedroom). It worried me a little and on the 4th day I checked the gravity and taste checked to see if it was infected and it was fine. Taste tested again today on bottling and it tastes good (comparing to memories of brews I made as a teenager that had zero temp control)
Its super clean, no real off flavors I can pickup. The flavor and the smell, from the hops is brilliant

I looked into it and found out that lager yeast often releases abit of a sulfur at the beginning of a ferment, but mangrove jack's wouldn't supply a lager yeast with their el cheapo kits.. would they? I was thinking next time of upgrading the yeast as part of a few tweaks but now im thinking of sticking with it.

23L Brew:
Mangrove jacks Dutch lager kit 1.7kg
1.5kg dextrose
60g taiheke hops (NZ Cascade) dry hopped 3 days prior to bottling
half a campden tablet
kept at 21C during 8day ferment
fg 1.006


Next time il probably add a can of LME and have a go at boiling in some extra hops for bitterness.
Shoot for around 7%alc

I was also thinking that since the yeast they supply is such a small amount a starter would be a good idea to get the numbers up, but whenever I do a search trying to find a good procedure for it I just get an article or people talking about why 'you shouldnt do a starter with dry yeast'

Sorry if the post is abit rambly

 

[Miraculix]

Just got done with my first brew in about 8 years. Probably my first real brew really.

I used the yeast supplied with the kit and noticed something interesting. The first few days the fermenter was letting off quite abit of sulfur'y smelling stuff, enough that you would notice it but not enough to be massively offensive (fermenting in a closet in my bedroom). It worried me a little and on the 4th day I checked the gravity and taste checked to see if it was infected and it was fine. Taste tested again today on bottling and it tastes good (comparing to memories of brews I made as a teenager that had zero temp control)
Its super clean, no real off flavors I can pickup. The flavor and the smell, from the hops is brilliant

I looked into it and found out that lager yeast often releases abit of a sulfur at the beginning of a ferment, but mangrove jack's wouldn't supply a lager yeast with their el cheapo kits.. would they? I was thinking next time of upgrading the yeast as part of a few tweaks but now im thinking of sticking with it.

23L Brew:
Mangrove jacks Dutch lager kit 1.7kg
1.5kg dextrose
60g taiheke hops (NZ Cascade) dry hopped 3 days prior to bottling
half a campden tablet
kept at 21C during 8day ferment
fg 1.006


Next time il probably add a can of LME and have a go at boiling in some extra hops for bitterness.
Shoot for around 7%alc

I was also thinking that since the yeast they supply is such a small amount a starter would be a good idea to get the numbers up, but whenever I do a search trying to find a good procedure for it I just get an article or people talking about why 'you shouldnt do a starter with dry yeast'

Sorry if the post is abit rambly

Which yeast did they supply the kit with? My guess is it's California lager and that's a lager yeast. If I would want to upgrade this, I would remove the dextrose and replace it with light dme or lme. Yeast amount will be fine, no need for a starter.

 

[daft-and-dank]

Which yeast did they supply the kit with? My guess is it's California lager and that's a lager yeast. If I would want to upgrade this, I would remove the dextrose and replace it with light dme or lme. Yeast amount will be fine, no need for a starter.

I think the yeast just came in a plain unamed packet. When I say kit I mean it's one of them beer in a can things with the 5g yeast packet under the lid.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Its super clean, no real off flavors I can pickup. The flavor and the smell, from the hops is brilliant

If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it...

Next time il probably add a can of LME and have a go at boiling in some extra hops for bitterness.
Shoot for around 7%alc

Just as a warning, fermentation gets rather more difficult over 1.060 SG - roughly equivalent to 1kg extract in 5 litres (and a bit less than that if there's sugar in the mix). While I appreciate all the excitement of getting (back) into brewing, I'd suggest keeping below 1kg extract/5l for your first few brews.

 

[Miraculix]

I think the yeast just came in a plain unamed packet. When I say kit I mean it's one of them beer in a can things with the 5g yeast packet under the lid.

I just searched it on the internet, the yeast is indeed mj California lager, but 5gram is a bit on the low side. You could just buy an additional pack of mj California lager and throw it all in together with the 5g you already got.

From my own experience, I can say that this yeast only produced sulfur when I underpitched, that might be desirable and it might not.