My first lager

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

+1 i would not dilute ... not a fan of messing with beer volumes after fermentation . It is what it is and will still be drinkable ... we love and learn and do it right the next time

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

+1 Agree steady temps seem to give best results, as well as no real need for the yeast nutrients with this grain bill. I have only used 34/70 twice. It seemed to take a bit longer than US05 (my staple) but it did clear well, even without gelatine, but I would still use gelatine if you want to give it a helping hand.

I would tend to just leave the beer as a 6% ABV Pilsner. Cos you are going to be diluting everything. flavour, bitterness etc. Its also a bit of a personal thing, I dilute just about every step in my brewday, but I dont like to water down after fermentation. Thats not to say its not done.

I started the boil with 25 l and topped up with boiling water late in the boil. I didn’t expect such a high OG. The recipe called for 0,4kg each of Cara clair (I mistakenly typed Carapils in my OP) and Munich. I bought 1kg of each for two batches and didn’t want to waste the 100g each. Can’t think that would bump up the OG that much though.

Anyway; I’ll wait and see what the FG (and ABV) is, but won’t dilute before bottling as I have no idea how and never have before. There’s more constant airlock activity today even though the temp is kept constant at 12° in my ferm chamber. I’ll wait till it subsides and then take a gravity reading.

If this beer doesn’t taste great, I’ll add water to the fermenter before adding the wort if my pre-boil gravity is the same as this time with the next batch.


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[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

I started the boil with 25 l and topped up with boiling water late in the boil. I didn’t expect such a high OG. The recipe called for 0,4kg each of Cara clair (I mistakenly typed Carapils in my OP) and Munich. I bought 1kg of each for two batches and didn’t want to waste the 100g each. Can’t think that would bump up the OG that much though.

Anyway; I’ll wait and see what the FG (and ABV) is, but won’t dilute before bottling as I have no idea how and never have before. There’s more constant airlock activity today even though the temp is kept constant at 12° in my ferm chamber. I’ll wait till it subsides and then take a gravity reading.

If this beer doesn’t taste great, I’ll add water to the fermenter before adding the wort if my pre-boil gravity is the same as this time with the next batch.


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The dilution calculations often arent that exact (but it might be cos of my refractometer use rather than hydrometer), so if you can, add a bit less water, double check SG and then add the balance if required. Although chasing exact figures is largely irrelevant in my mind.

PS. overshooting SG is a great problem to have

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

The dilution calculations often arent that exact (but it might be cos of my refractometer use rather than hydrometer), so if you can, add a bit less water, double check SG and then add the balance if required. Although chasing exact figures is largely irrelevant in my mind.

PS. overshooting SG is a great problem to have

I’ll taste this beer first, and if it’s good try and repeat it rather than make any adjustments


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[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

+1 Agree steady temps seem to give best results, as well as no real need for the yeast nutrients with this grain bill. I have only used 34/70 twice. It seemed to take a bit longer than US05 (my staple) but it did clear well, even without gelatine, but I would still use gelatine if you want to give it a helping hand.

I would tend to just leave the beer as a 6% ABV Pilsner. Cos you are going to be diluting everything. flavour, bitterness etc. Its also a bit of a personal thing, I dilute just about every step in my brewday, but I dont like to water down after fermentation. Thats not to say its not done.

Will there be a marked difference if I brew the same grain bill and hops but use US-05? I have two jars harvested from a previous pale ale and a sachet of dry US-05. I’m going to harvest this yeast anyway, and if the beer is good use it for the other batch.


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[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

PS. overshooting SG is a great problem to have

This. I love it. It's nice to see 20l of product for your work, and then when you test it you get to increase it to 23l.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Will there be a marked difference if I brew the same grain bill and hops but use US-05? I have two jars harvested from a previous pale ale and a sachet of dry US-05. I’m going to harvest this yeast anyway, and if the beer is good use it for the other batch.


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US05 is a very clean ale yeast, but it's still going to be very different to using a different lager yeast. Honestly though. I basically an unadventurous with yeasts and get my flavours from grain and hops. Someone else can answer this way better than me

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

US05 is a very clean ale yeast, but it's still going to be very different to using a different lager yeast. Honestly though. I basically an unadventurous with yeasts and get my flavours from grain and hops. Someone else can answer this way better than me

Thanks. The brew is still chugging along happily. I look forward to tasting the result.


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[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

Damn this yeast is slow! After three days of happy chugging the SG is only down to 1,053. I think I should brew a pale ale with kveik this weekend if I don’t want to be forced to drink commercial beer.


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[Dewald Posthumus Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dewald Posthumus]

Damn this yeast is slow!

Try getting your hands on some Kveik Oslo for your next Lager/ Pilsner/ Blonde - it is quickly becoming one of my favourite yeasts. Good clean profile, the Blonde I brewed on Saturday is already at 1.010, ready to be cold crashed, just waiting for the yeast to clean up.

[Mouter Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mouter]

Try getting your hands on some Kveik Oslo for your next Lager/ Pilsner/ Blonde - it is quickly becoming one of my favourite yeasts. Good clean profile, the Blonde I brewed on Saturday is already at 1.010, ready to be cold crashed, just waiting for the yeast to clean up.

Thanks for the great tip! I’m definitely going to do that.


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[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

tl/dr;
watering down beer. / post fermentation ew, no.
adding water at sparge or preboil, sure.
watering down chilled wort. ew, no, but at the bare minimum, boil it first.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

tl/dr;
watering down beer. / post fermentation ew, no.
adding water at sparge or preboil, sure.
watering down chilled wort. ew, no, but at the bare minimum, boil it first.

I water down my chilled wort from time to time. I sometimes overshoot the gravity with 10 points or more, and that won't do for me. For example, a 7.5% ABV stout will be fine, but if I'm making a pilsner, there's no point in pitching the lager yeast into a wort at 1.068, for example. That's why I water down (I keep water on hand for that). Boiled water, lid never off, wait to cool and then add as much as I need.

My Marzen was watered down from 1.062 to 1.054, for example. I don't want such a big beer. I overshot purely because I was lax with the calculations, and that's on me, I know. I know my efficiency with my process is 90% and more, yet I still worked on 80%.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

I water down my chilled wort from time to time. I sometimes overshoot the gravity with 10 points or more, and that won't do for me. For example, a 7.5% ABV stout will be fine, but if I'm making a pilsner, there's no point in pitching the lager yeast into a wort at 1.068, for example. That's why I water down (I keep water on hand for that). Boiled water, lid never off, wait to cool and then add as much as I need.

My Marzen was watered down from 1.062 to 1.054, for example. I don't want such a big beer. I overshot purely because I was lax with the calculations, and that's on me, I know. I know my efficiency with my process is 90% and more, yet I still worked on 80%.

overshoot with 10 points, like you said lax with calculations led you to fix the issuelater, having preboiled cooled water lying around probably means it happens more than it should. you can save yourself the pain. dont be lazy.
these days i fill kegs only, no bottling! i dont want the extra volume.