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Muntons Continential Lager 1.8Kg
1Kg Dextrose
1Kg Brewcraft Enhancer #60
11.5g Saflager23 yeast (additional
to Kit yeast)
OG 1058 @ 20C
FG 1002 @ 20C = 8.1%abv
I think I'll lie down to drink this. It looks and smells very good.
Will find the strength to open a stubby about 24 December.
Twenty-seven days fermentation at 19/20 degrees C.


ps: Any comments on the abv welcome. Comments on approx drinking temperature too, please.

WOW!

Been toying with the idea of an incredibly strong lager for a while, let us know what it is like.

Greg.

It's an elephant

Dogger

rain wrote: 11.5g Saflager23 yeast (additional
to Kit yeast)

You didn't put both yeasts in, did you? More is not necessarily better, except in that you may be able to get the ferment started earlier which helps to ward off any infections... But two yeast strains in the one brew is probably not a good idea.

With 8.1%abv - you may have difficulty carbonating this one in the bottle. At around 8% many yeasts get stunted... if you don't get any carbonation in this one pitch a champagne yeast before you bottle next time.

Lagers are best served quite cold, but we all knew that

The yeast that comes with Cooper's Heritage Lager (and another couple of their brews that escape me at the moment) come with a lager/ale blend. Maybe it's not a good thing to do.

Any ideas, chaps?

It shouldn't matter, one will dominate and the other die off depending on the conditions. It wont particularly hurt the beer either, especially as you are brewing heavy although I don't suggest that you propogate it.

My experience with yeast is around 10 percent they are tapped out (poison themselves on alcohol) so you should get a good ferment

Dogger

Isaac and oliver, thanks for your cautioning. Using both yeasts together was at the suggestion of the bloke running the brew-shop (I can't recall what I asked to achieve - is this caused by over-indulgence, or simply the years that have passed?).

Seems like you are banking on a pretty high attenuation to get the FG down to 1.002. I don't know what's in the brewcraft enhancer that you used, but surely it contains some malt/maltodextrin which are partly/wholly unfermentable, respectively, which will lead to a higher FG.

The 2 kinds of yeast shouldn't cause you any problems, unless each side decides to get together and eradicate the other kind (Anyone seen the South Park episode with the "Sea People"?) by launching suicide bombings and missile attacks

And it is better to overpitch than to underpitch, especially when you're going for a lager, which are supposed to be more "clean" tasting. The yeast will multiply up to their desired concentration and yeast reproduction can increase the formation of some off-flavors, so the less reproducing they have to do, less off-flavors. THe number you often hear is 1 million cells per mL per degree plato. How this converts to the recommended mass of yeast depends on things that the average homebrewer can't measure (live versus dead yeast) but I've seen numbers of 50-80gm per 100L, right on the 11.5 gm in your saflager pack at the low end, up to 18.5 gm at the high end. You probably want to start with more yeast for a high gravity lager anyways.

After all of that, what's the take home message?
Don't worry, it almost always turns out fine.

Lacking patience is probably not good behaviour in a homebrewer, but ..........
Anyway, I cracked the first of this brew about 10 minutes ago and, as was expected, the product is still a little cloudy. Colour and carbonation are great, and the creamy head has remained to coat the glass to the very bottom.
Bitterness is just a bit strong, but it certainly leaves that wonderful malty taste of beer in the mouth. MY score on MY brew is - hmmm, 8.5 (definitely above the abv, anyway) and I expect it to improve.