I just ordered the Northern Brewer kit for American Lager. The bittering hops is simple: 1 oz Saaz (60 min). Do we know the actual bittering units (HBU) needed for this beer. I am looking for the Mic Light flavor.
I hate to burst your bubble but there is no way it’s going to taste exactly like Mic light it will have it’s own taste which as a rule pretty good.
As far as Ibu’s it should end up being 10-15 which is right for this stile of beer.
I would use a half oz of cluster at forty min. then a quarter oz of saaz at ten min., that will get u 15 IBU’s which is midrange for the style. I like the bittering flavor of the cluster and the aroma of the saaz. with this beer they are very subtle. i would use 3.5 lb of minute rice in the mash instead of the syrup.
Check out NB’s page on this beer, at the bottom theres a link to the page that tells IBUs and OG.
Edited to add: I checked and it seems this one doesn’t have a tech page with it.
If your Saaz are 5% AA, 1ounce and a 90min boil would give you around 28% conversion, so that would be around 20IBU. 18IBU if you add them at 60min.
You might even want to use only 3/4 of the hops for a 15IBU addition. That to me is a nice low bitterness level that lets other malt flavors come out of a delicate beer like this.
Yes, 15 IBU sounds good; I guess. When a kit has the bittering units included, I can adjust the hops based on the AA; not on this one.
Things that also help me:
Filter the Charleston, SC city water.
Adjust the mash water using that 5.2 PH stabilize product.
Must do a starter yeast; 100 billion cells not enough.
- also don’t shake the starter yeast after 24 hours or you get a big mess.
A good sized starter is very helpful for a lager, you want to minimize the lag time and avoid esters. Fermenting at 50F is also a must. I’m assuming you are making this as a lager?
[quote=“jdclfc”]
Adjust the mash water using that 5.2 PH stabilize product.
Must do a starter yeast; 100 billion cells not enough.
- also don’t shake the starter yeast after 24 hours or you get a big mess. [/quote]
That stabilizer stuff is worthless, just use some brewing salts. And you’re doing it wrong if you’re getting a huge mess (not giving your starter enough head space or shaking too vigorously).
