First lager beer kit

[patroclos]

Hello,

I have recently joined this forum. Trying not to violate any rules or etc but forgive me If I do so.
I'm planning to brew a 40 pint lager from Munton's Continental Lager kit. Instead of using the yeast that comes with the kit I bought Fermentis w34/70 yeast. Plus I bought 1.5 kg of dry malt extract to brew 100% malt beer. I made some research over the internet but I'm confused so thought about writing here what I have in my mind. So If I'm wrong about any process please correct me. By the way, I searched threads here as well and read comments but I hope nobody gets offended If I ask similar questions again here in my thread.
So, the fermentation will take place at a temperature around 13-14 degrees Celsius. So I guess this is good for lager beer. I want to make starter yeast. I read this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=76101&highlight=lager

So thinking of making yeast starter a few hours before brewing with 1lt of water and 100 gr. of DME. I'll cover it with aluminium foil and will follow instructions in the link.
Then for brewing I'll follow kit instructions. Boil 3,5 liters of water, add beer kit to the water(I'll boil the can as well to make the kit more liquid). Then instead of sugar I'll use 1kg. of DME for fermenting. But to add DME, shall I boil it in a few liters of water to sanitize it? If so, how many liters of water is fine? Finally will add new opened bottled cool water(do I need to sanitize that water as well?) and cool the wort to ~24 degrees Celsius. After all these steps I'll add the starter yeast to the wort.
When everything is done I'm planning to wait at least 3 weeks for fermentation to take place. During fermentation do I need to add additional sugar or yeast? Or shall I just wait for fermentation to finish and then bottle my beer?

I appreciate any comments about my plan of actions. This will be my first brew so I'm quiet excited about it

Best wishes to all,
:rockin:

 

[Kent88]

I think temps for fermenting a lager are more like 11-12 degrees Celsius, but I'm used to fahrenheit.

Can you find the instructions for your kit and post a link? Do Muntons kits instruct the brewer to boil briefly?

If this is your first brew I'd recommend you just direct pitch a couple of packets of saflager. You can certainly make a starter, it is a good practice, but I recommend you wait until your second or third brew for that. If you make the starter, have a spare packet of yeast ready anyway, just in case.

After you add your yeast, close up the bucket or carboy, put it in that cold spot, and don't mess with it until it is time to transfer and/or bottle. If there is an airlock, keep an eye on that.

 

[estricklin]

If you properly re-hydrate that 34/70, you won't need a starter, and starters usually take days, not hours.

If you can hold the beer at 12C or so that would be fine, otherwise just keep it as cool as you can. You should add all of your fermentable ingredients at boil time. You will need a small amount of sugar/DME to prime your bottles with (so that they carbonate), something like 100 grams should work for 5 gallons, which is your 40 pints. You won't need that until bottling time.

Welcome to the forum, we're glad to have you!

 

[patroclos]

Can you find the instructions for your kit and post a link? Do Muntons kits instruct the brewer to boil briefly?

This is the link for Munton's lager beer kit.

http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Connoisseurs_range.pdf

They just instruct to boil the can to make the liquid inside easy to flow.

Just pouring yeast over the wort is pretty easy but maybe at least I might try rehydrating it. By the way, do I need to boil all the water that I'll add to the wort? Thinking about boiling some 20 liters of water is quiet frightening Or may I assume that bottled water is sterile enough?

 

[patroclos]

If you can hold the beer at 12C or so that would be fine, otherwise just keep it as cool as you can. You should add all of your fermentable ingredients at boil time.

May I boil DME separately in a pot? or may I just pour it to the wort just after adding boiled water to the wort? I read so many things about sanitation so I want to be very careful about it

Welcome to the forum, we're glad to have you!

Thanks my friend. I hope to be around for a long time If I can succeed with my first brewing attempt

:rockin:

 

[Kent88]

I'd mix the extract with the 6 pints water, boil it for 15 minutes or so, top it off with more water if too much evaporates, then pour it in as it states in step 4.

It says to boil just 6 pints, then add 31 pints cold water. They're really trusting a small amount of boiling liquid to thermal shock sanitize a lot of liquid. If you can, boil that 31 pints first, let it cool down to room temps and keep it contained so it stays sanitized, and add it after you mix everything up in step 5. You might want to wait a little longer before adding the yeast if you do that, you want to make sure everything is at least down to room temp before adding yeast.

If you are using bottled water make sure it isn't distilled or reverse osmosis.

 

[patroclos]

Hi again,

It had been some time since my last message but I barely managed to prepare my beer.
Kent88 I couldn't boil all the water as you suggested but did my best. Because I have little space and insufficient equipment to boil that amount of water. But I did my best to sanitize all other stuff.
I have another question. I'm planning to keep the wort in the bucket for at least 3 weeks. In the mean time, if fermentation finishes much earlier than that time(like in 1 or 2 weeks for instance), does it cause any bad flavor to keep the wort in the bucket after the fermentation finishes? Or because this is a lager beer, can we say that the longer I keep it in bucket(of course at cold temperature ), the better it will taste?

Best wishes to everyone,

:rockin:

 

[estricklin]

Glad to hear from you again.

Nothing wrong with letting the beer hang out for a while after fermentation has finished. It will get clearer, and often taste better with a little time. After a few weeks, if you can, bring the beer down to around 0C to lager. Otherwise just keep it as low as you can. You should be "ok" to bottle a few weeks after pitching yeast, but letting it lager for another week or 2 will likely make the ber that much better. Then again, if your in a hurry to bottle, I won't fault you for not waiting the extra!

 

[patroclos]

Hi again,

On 19th of February I prepared beer from my Muntons Lager kit and pitched yeast as well. One day later I saw a lot of bubbles coming from the airlock. For days everything went well but since 26th of Feb. bubbling stopped suddenly. For only one week the fermentation continued. I used two packs of fermentis w34/70 yeast(totally 23gr yeast for 23liters of beer)and in the instruction document it says optimum temperature is between 12-15C. I kept temp between 13-15C. The initial SG was 1.043 but I didn't check the current SG. Is it normal for bubbles to stop after one week or is there something I did wrong?

Thanks,

Taskin

 

[slym2none]

Bubbling from the airlock (or lack thereof) is not a proper indication of fermentation activity. Please use your gravity readings to make sure your beer is done or not.

*takes a drink*

Also, it is definitely known for yeasts, at times, to be done with primary fermentation in 3-5 days. But you should give it time afterwards to clean up after itself & drop clear.

 

[patroclos]

Thanks Slym2none for your reply.
I have checked the specific gravity this evening and checked a value of 1.016. I forgot to mention in my previous post, I used 1 kg. Dry Malt Extract instead of sugar. Perhaps that's why specific gravity is high? Once somewhere I read that when you use DME instead of sugar, final specific gravity can be little high. But of course I'm not sure about that information
Maybe the yeast is still fermenting slowly, can this be another reason why SG is high?
I appreciate any advice and reviews.

:rockin: