German Lager Mini Mash

German Lager Mini Mash

What you need:

· Black Rock Mexican Lager kit 1.5kg

· 1kg Aust Pilsner malt grain

· 140g Carapils malt grain

· 40g Crystal malt grain

· 250g Dextrose

· 25g Tettnanger hop pellets

· 1x Whirlfloc tablet

· 5-10 l fridge cold water

· Sachet of Saflager S23 yeast

Equipment:

· Small Esky, about 8 litre capacity

· Thermometer

· Large cooking pot (at least 10 litre capacity)

· Strainer

· Mash Bag

·

How to Do it:

· Pre-Heat the Esky with 2 litres of boiling water for 10 minutes.

· Heat 3 litres of water to about 70 degrees. This is the strike water.

· Place the cracked grain in the esky and add the strike water. You are aiming for a mash temperature of 67 degrees. Add a little hot or cold water as required to achieve the desired temperature. The grain should be contained inside a mash-bag to ensure all the grain remains submerged in the water.

· Seal the Esky and mash the grain for a period of 60 minutes - which means, just let it sit in the esky for the next hour. This is a good time for a refreshing beer.

· After the hour, add 500ml of near boiling water to the Esky mix well and reseal the Esky. This is "mash-out".

· Drain contents of your Esky into a large pot through a strainer. Put the mash bag in the strainer to drain.

· Return the mash bag to the Esky and add 3 litres of sparge water at 72-65 degrees and mix well.

· Drain the Esky into the pot through the strainer and put the mash-bag in the strainer to drain.

· Bring the liquid (wort) in the pot to boil. Keep an eye on the boil, the pot will boil over the minute you get distracted!

· Add the whirlfloc tablet and boil for 15 minutes.

· After the wort has been boiling for 10 minutes, add the hop pellets.

· Boil for remaining 5 minutes

· Remove heat from the pot. Add the Mexican Lager kit and mix well into the hot wort.

· Pour the contents of the pot into your fermenter and add the cold water. Top up to 22 litres. You need to get the overall temperature down to 20-25 degrees, Add refrigerated water as necessary.

· Pitch the yeast, seal the fermenter and ferment as cool as possible, ideally around 12-14 degrees.