homemade lager

bryanb

Hello All
Firstly I'm new to this site and home brewing. I purchased a 40 pint lager kit and carried out everything to the book. after the suggested time of fermenting I took a reading from my hydrometer and it had risen within the lager (sorry but readings have escaped me) i.e the hydrometer has floated more than first reading. I have now bottled and they have been carbonating for 2 weeks. I tried a bottle and it was very cloudy and tasteless. I am leaving for another week to try. Any rough ideas as to what may have happen or if I have messed up my first batch
Bryan

HBO_Staff

Hi Bryan, welcome, the hydrometer lowering is correct and shows it has fermented, it ideally needs to be a low and stable reading the bottling. Once bottled and you have primed each bottle (with either sugar or carbonation drops), they can then be left - ideally somewhere warm around 20 degrees C for a week as this will help the priming sugar to dissolve and start secondary fermentation, then you can leave somewhere a few degrees cooler to help it clear. Once the lager is clear in the bottles it is often ready for drinking, if using plastic bottles then you will feel them go hard from the pressure of the carbonation. Ideally leave for at least a few weeks more to allow the flavours to fully develop and it conditions.

Given more time the lager will clear and carbonate, and the flavours will develop too - depending which lager you made this can take a while - Coopers European lager for example is around 12 weeks in the bottles

bryanb

Thanks for reply
The hydrometer sits very high in the sample, I was thinking it should sit lower when fermentation is complete. Am I wrong in thinking that then
Bryan

bryanb

Hello All
Tried another bottle of homemade lager after bottling/carbonating 2 weeks ago, lager has a very bitter taste and fairly cloudy towards last third of bottle. Is this normal ?
Bryan

HBO_Staff

The hydrometer will usually sit lower as it completes and the sugars ferment out, the best thing to is to go by the reading on it, as a rough guide with lagers (varies on the brand etc) they will often finish around 1.010. If your hydrometer reading is very high (they often start generally around 1.045) then it shows it has not fermented fully. Can you advise the current gravity reading and the brand/style you are making?