Batch Three - A Dutch Too Much

Author's Note: This beer - Strontkop Dutch Lager - was my first real beer, by which I mean not only containing grains, but containing booze! Although it was far from perfect, I still get a little nostalgic about it. One of the more important things I did with this brew (that made it work) is shell out a few bucks for some proper yeast, instead of just using the almost worthless 5g sachets that come underneath the lids of Liquid Malt Extract cans.

1 x 1.7kg can of Mangrove Jack's Dutch Lager (LME)
2kg of Pilsner Barley
500g Raw Sugar
20g Wakatu Hops (60 min)
20g Wakatu Hops (15 min)
20g Wakatu Hops (0 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 x Mangrove Jack's Bohemian Lager Yeast (M84)
1 x Shitty 5g Yeast Pack
23L Fancy-pants Spring Water

First 'real' brew and damn, what a process! After cleaning, sterilizing and organising, I filled the stopckpot to about 3/4 with water and turned up the heat. I put the 2kg of Pilsner Barley in around 55C or so, but started the timer proper around 65C and did the old steep-n-stir for 30 minutes.

When the time was up, I poured everything through a sieve into a sterilized bucket, rinsed the solids with warm water, repeated and then separated liquids from solids (into the bucket and a plastic bag respectively). When it was done, I had nearly a whole bucket full of delicious barley runoff. After giving the stockput a bit of a clean out, I poured the runoff back into and I was good to go.

With the mash back in the pot, I added the Malt Extract and - while twirling my mustache evilly - the bag of raw sugar. I cranked the heat and once it hit 100C proper, I started the timer for 60 minutes, making the appropriate hop additions along the way.

My first brew with hops and damned if it didn't smell hoppy! After cooling the wort to 22C, I poured it through a sieve into the fermenter. Once the fermenter was in a secondary location, I added both packets (the M84 and the shitty 5g) of yeast, jiggled it back and forth then sealed it up.

All in all, I'm pretty confident about this batch. For one thing, I feel like I know what the hell I'm doing. Sort of. The pre-fermentation sample I took is a very clear yellow, like a healthy urine stream. The hops are smelling very aromatic too and I'm hoping they'll mellow a bit before it settles.