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I'm planning to a cold-weather brew (ie, lager) before the weather starts to heat up.

Was thinking about doing a honey wheat brew - does that want to be brewed at lager temps? I was reading elsewhere about specialty yeasts for wheat beers, are they like ales or lagers?

Failing that, I may go for a dark or red lager.... and play with some german hops (hallertau or something....not saaz, I've used them for the last couple of brews!)

Cheers!

dragonphoenix73 wrote:I'm planning to a cold-weather brew (ie, lager) before the weather starts to heat up.

Was thinking about doing a honey wheat brew - does that want to be brewed at lager temps? I was reading elsewhere about specialty yeasts for wheat beers, are they like ales or lagers?

Failing that, I may go for a dark or red lager.... and play with some german hops (hallertau or something....not saaz, I've used them for the last couple of brews!)

Cheers!

All of the wheat yeasts I am aware of recommend fermenting at ale temps (16C-18C)

Yeah the wheat yeasts are ale yeasts (i.e top fermenting) and most wheats are brewed a bit higher than normal ale temp i.e 20C or a bit higher - reason for that is to bring out more esters, which is desirable for the style as opposed to the cleaner taste of a normal ale.

There are some wheat lagers around, but the mainstream wheat beer is fermented at higher temps.

If you are looking at a cold weather brew, I would consider doing a nice pilsener. This style is one of the hardest for home brewers to come close to and is very challenging. If that doesn't appeal I would go with a dark lager.

has anyone used honey in a lager?

(other than Dogger Dan of course.... but he doesn't make lagers!)

Perhaps I'll go for a Belgian Witbier....

i chucked amarillo, a small amount of bitter orange peel, and some honey in a lager i've got in secondary at the moment. the samples i've tasted have been great so far, but reminiscent of an ale. not too fruity though, which i'm pleased with.

dragonphoenix73 wrote:has anyone used honey in a lager?

(other than Dogger Dan of course.... but he doesn't make lagers!)

Perhaps I'll go for a Belgian Witbier....

I just did a honey wheat using the Wyeast Forbidden Fruit yeast, came out great, one of the best beers I've made

I still haven't worked out what kit wort to get yet. Coles have the Cascade kits on for about $9. I've been wanting to try out the Golden Harvest Lager kit for a while.

Perhaps I'll stick with a red lager type. I've got some crystal malt grain lying around. I may even use a malt blend (like Coopers Brew blend #2). I'll still have to go to HBS to get some hops, so I'll see what goodies grab my eye when I head over.

Has anyone tried using fresh hops? Does anyone know if anyone in Melbourne has fresh hops?

dragonphoenix73 wrote:has anyone used honey in a lager?

(other than Dogger Dan of course.... but he doesn't make lagers!)

Perhaps I'll go for a Belgian Witbier....

I did a 2 can lager (1x Coopers Lager, 1x Coopers Draught and SafLager S23 fermented at 8C) with 300g honey. Tried it last night and after 3 weeks in the bottle it is quite good!

one of my first experimental brews was a can of coopers barvarian lager, brew enhancer 1 and 500g giant mallee honey.

bloody fantastic.