New Home Brewer – Looking for tips on lager

[MasonPeters]

Hey everyone,

After hanging around various forums and Facebook pages, I've finally mustered the courage to dive into the world of home brewing!

I'd love to start by brewing a lager, and wondered if any intermediate brewers out there had some solid advice on starting out. Being a complete novice, I'm open to any recommendations on equipment, ingredients, and heads up on any common mistakes people tend to make when brewing lagers.

Someone in a Facebook group mentioned there are some all in one home brewing products out there that are a good place for beginners like me to start and get to grips with the basics. A device called a Pinter was mentioned. Has anyone here tried it or can recommend something similar?

Excited to become part of the BeerSmith community and looking forward to the first taste of my delicious lager! Cheers!

Mason

 

[stevebonny]

Hi Mason, welcome to the madness. I would say that ales are a little more forgiving as a first brew, but if you are dead set on a lager then make sure you can control the fermentation temperature, typically around 50F. Ales are pretty happy at room temp. I use a small chest freezer with an external temp controller to control to 50F for lagers. I've never used a pinter so cant comment.

 

[Kevin58]

I agree with Steve. Start with a simple ale. Lagers require temperature control both in fermenting and in the storing of the beer. You can ferment an ale in your closet or basement and not worry too much but temperature fluctuations in some lagers can result in unwanted flavors.

I've been brewing for over 20 years and I did not attempt a lager until about 5 years ago. Newer equipment available and newer yeasts and techniques* have made it infinitely easier so there is no reason you could not be brewing lagers within months and not years like me.

As for all-in-one brewing systems yes! they make things much easier. They are, at their core, BIAB (Brew In A Bag) systems. Although they use stainless steel mesh baskets rather than actual bags.

I am not familiar with the model you mentioned but one very popular and affordable options is the Anvil Foundry. They offer the flexibility for you to use either 120v or 240v - except the Foundry 18 which is 240v only. I had one and was able to use regular household 120v current for a while until I was able to get an electrician to set me up for 240v.

*Look up warm fermented lager or pseudo lager.

 

[McMullan]

I get the impression you prefer lager. That’s totally fine. Who doesn’t enjoy a good lager? Me, seeing how things are these days, you’re in a great time to do a lager first. Even with minimal equipment. Most LHBSs seem to do fresh wort kits these days. Grab one or two and go for it. Focus on the fermentation side first. It’s the most important bit. Get a cheap hydrometer. You’ll need fermentation temperature control regardless, lager or ale. E.g., Inkbird plug-n-play controller, cheap/used fridge, heat cable (used for pets) and an FV or two. Start with dry yeast to keep it even simpler. I like Diamond Lager, personally. Once that’s on, think about bottling or dive straight into kegging. Kegging is a better option nowadays. Don’t invest any more until you’re confident to. Skill and knowledge gained are more important than any fancy-pants equipment. Most shiny equipment only makes brewing easier, not better. Dive in. Enjoy!

 

[McMullan]

Out of curiosity, I looked up the “Pinter”. Don’t waste your money. It’s just an opportunistic reinvention of a small pressure-rated barrel. Honestly, for the money, a nice stainless keg with some simple cheap accessories is going to do a much better job with so much more flexibility in terms of options and general use. Especially for lager brewing.

 

[GaryW]

... Start with a simple ale. Lagers require temperature control both in fermenting and in the storing of the beer. You can ferment an ale in your closet or basement and not worry too much but temperature fluctuations in some lagers can result in unwanted flavors.

I totally agree.

@MasonPeters I too enjoy lager beers. So, in my early homebrewing days I decided to brew a lager. I understood that lager beers need to be aged at cool temperatures...and I thought I had a method of temperature control. So after brewing & fermentation of my first lager, I placed my carboy of precious beer in a dark location outside of my home during winter. A few weeks later, I left town for a week, then returned to find that my lager had frozen...not enough to break the glass carboy...but enough to result in a terrible beer.

The moral of my story is that you need some reliable method of temperature control to produce a decent lager...regardless of the season/time of year. I use a small (9 cu. ft.) chest freezer with a Johnson Controls temperature controller to age lagers at 38°F± 2°. However, there are other options depending on your budget, available space, etc.