How to brew a lager at home

A lager asks for two things an ale does not, and both of them are about temperature rather than skill. The yeast works cold, and then the beer sits cold for weeks afterwards while it clears and smooths out. That second bit is called lagering and it is where the style gets its name.

So the real cost of a lager is time rather than money, and that is worth knowing before you start, because a lager you rush will taste like an ale that has had a rough week.

What makes a lager a lager

Lager yeast ferments at the bottom of the fermenter and it does its best work somewhere around 10 to 13 degrees, where ale yeast wants 18 to 22. Working that cold, the yeast throws far fewer of the fruity and spicy flavour compounds you get in an ale, which is why a good lager tastes clean and lets the malt and the hops sit right at the front.

That cleanness is also the catch. There is nowhere for a fault to hide in a lager, so anything you got away with in a dark ale will be sitting there in the glass.

The gear, which is the same gear

You need no more equipment than any other beer: a fermenter with an airlock, a hydrometer and a test jar, a thermometer, sanitiser, and bottles with caps and a capper. The only thing a lager really wants on top of that is somewhere genuinely cold to sit, and for most people that is a spare fridge or the coolest corner of the shed in the colder half of the year.

Brewing it

1. Sanitise, then mix the wort

Same as any kit beer. Stand the tin in hot water so it pours, tip it into a sanitised fermenter with your sugar or brew enhancer, dissolve it in a couple of litres of hot water, then top up to 23 litres with cold.

2. Get it cold before the yeast goes in

This is the step that separates a lager from a disappointment. Bring the wort down to about 12 degrees before you pitch, and if you pitch a lager yeast into warm wort it will throw ale flavours at you and the whole point of the exercise is gone.

3. Pitch plenty of yeast

Cold yeast works slowly, so a lager wants more of it than an ale does for the same volume. One sachet into 23 litres is thin, and two is closer to right.

4. Ferment cold and be patient

Hold it between 10 and 13 degrees and expect it to take two to three weeks rather than the week an ale takes. The hydrometer is the only thing that tells you it has finished, and a reading that has not shifted in two or three days is the answer. The airlock tells you nothing, because a lid that is not perfectly sealed lets the gas out around the rim instead.

5. Lager it

Once fermentation is done, drop the temperature as far as you can get it, ideally down near 1 to 4 degrees, and leave it alone for three to six weeks. The yeast and the haze drop out, the rough edges go, and the beer turns into the crisp thing you were after. Skip this and you have brewed a cloudy, slightly harsh pale ale.

6. Bottle it

Prime with sugar or carbonation drops, fill from the tap without disturbing the sediment, cap, and leave the bottles somewhere above 18 degrees for two weeks so the leftover yeast can carbonate them. Then chill them properly before you open one.

If you have no spare fridge

Plenty of people brew perfectly decent lagers without one, and the honest version is that you will not get it down to 4 degrees in a shed. What you can do is brew it through the coldest part of the year, keep the fermenter on a concrete floor away from any afternoon sun, and wrap it in a wet towel with a fan on it if the temperature creeps. It will not be a Bavarian cellar and it will still be a far better beer than the same tin fermented at 24 degrees in the middle of summer.

Hops, and the one to ask for

A kit tin comes already hopped, so you do not have to add anything at all. If you want to lift the aroma, the hop to ask for is Hersbrucker, which is a German variety with the soft floral character that suits a lager. We carry it in 25 gram packets.

Two hops that get named in nearly every lager recipe on the internet are Saaz and Hallertau, and we do not stock either of them, so do not come in looking for them and go home disappointed. Hersbrucker is the one that does that job on our shelf.

Shop related products

• Coopers Original Lager 1.7kg. The straightforward one to learn the style on.
• Coopers European Lager 1.7kg. Drier and a bit more bitter, closer to a continental pilsner.
• Thomas Coopers Golden Crown Lager 1.7kg. A fuller malt character if you want more body in the glass.
• S23 Saflager Lager Yeast 11.5g. A proper bottom fermenting lager yeast, and worth using two sachets on a 23 litre batch.

The tins and the yeasts are in the homebrew collection, and the Coopers range is here.

Did you know we also stock Hersbrucker hop pellets in store, along with 30 litre and 60 litre fermenter complete systems, a 2 scale hydrometer with the test jar, glass thermometers, airlocks, carbonation drops, crown seals and cappers. A fair bit of the homebrew range carries our supplier branding so it does not go up on the website. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

If you want to plan a batch before you come in, Brewhilder is our homebrew helper and it will talk you through it.

More from the brewing bench

• Beer styles explained: pale ale, amber, porter and stout
• What fermentation actually does, and how to keep yeast happy
• Beer ingredients explained: malt, hops, yeast and water

Patience is the ingredient I am worst at, and a lager is the beer that notices.

Cheers,
Candeece