Description

Charles Faram Dry-Hopped Lager – All Grain

Dry-Hopped Lager

Weyermann Pilsner malt and carapils, ensure a classic crisp pilsner taste with a delicious mouthfeel. Pilgrim, Godiva, and Admiral hops are used at various stages of the boil and for dry hopping, to provide a pleasant hoppy character, with subtle aromas, and notes of stonefruits and grapefruit. This 5% ABV dry hopped lager has a refreshing taste and is best drunk chilled.

Charles Faram Series

Dark Rock are working in partnership with Charles Faram, the UK’s leading hop merchant and dedicated hop development experts, to introduce a range of recipe kits to support their Hop Development Program. Their aim is to develop exciting new hops that will rival ‘New World’ varieties, be more sustainable and reduce environmental impacts. They have commercially released a number of varieties from the program and continue to add to their range as development continues. This ethos also supports Dark Rock’s sustainability aim to support British hop farmers and maltsters.

What’s Included?

• Premium Brewing Yeast Sachet
• Malt Grains
• Hop Pellets
• Pure Brew (water treatment and nutrient)
• Britewort clarifier
• Starbrite Beer Finings (Vegan-Friendly)
• Fermenter and keg ID stickers
• Full instructions

Allergy Advice: May include barley and other cereals, containing gluten

Specifications

• Makes: 40 pints / 5 gallons
• ABV Approx: 5%
• Target Original Gravity: 1048 (approx)
• Target Finishing Gravity: 1010 (approx)
• Fermentation time: 10-14 days approx
• Conditioning time: 4 weeks minimum (it will mature further if left longer)

Ingredients

Malts: Weyermann Premium Pilsner, Weyermann Carapils
Hops: Pilgrim, Godiva, Admiral
Yeast: Premium Beer Yeast
Extras: Britewort, Starbrite Beer Finings, Pure Brew

What Equipment Do You Need?

Basic beer making equipment (5g fermenter, airlock, syphon tube with sediment trap, hydrometer, Suresan sanitiser, bottles or barrel). These are available under the starter kit section on this website. You will also need specialist equipment to make all grain beers. The process involves three stages.

The first stage is mashing. Your mash equipment will need to maintain the grains and water at a constant temperature for an hour (usually 66C). This is important as only slight variations in temperature can affect the taste of the final beer. The second part of the process is sparging. This involves rinsing the grains with water slightly hotter than the mash (77C). Finally, the wort will need to be boiled for around 70 minutes and then cooled to fermentation temperature as fast as possible.

From this point, the fermentation process is similar to standard kits.  There are numerous techniques equipment styles that can be used to make full mash beers. In the past, the most basic method used was a floating mash tun and insulated ice box. Alternatively, a Pico style Electrim Bin was used. Whilst these are still available, there are now easy to use all-grain brewing systems available. The initial cost is higher but these systems are superb and allow you to achieve bang on results every time.

They also cut down the time that you have to be present during the process. All grain systems are so effective that most commercial breweries use them for testing experimental recipes prior to full-blown scale-ups. The Grainfather brewing system is highly recommended. The system can be expanded as your skills develop, to include conical temperature controlled fermenters, sparge water heaters, and even an integrated Glycol Chiller to ensure precise temperatures down to 4 degrees centigrade (useful for lager production and summer brewing). A wide range of all-grain brewing equipment is available on our website and we are always available to offer advice.

Tips

A sachet of Pure Brew is included with this kit in order to achieve a commercial quality. Pure Brew is a professional beer enhancer. It feeds the yeast with essential nutrients, which supercharge the fermentation and support yeast development (even in limited oxygen conditions). Pure Brew also treats brewing water to eliminate problems caused by Chlorine and Chloramine (which can create a medicinal or as it is sometimes referred to, a “homebrew” taste) The condition of brewing water is critical to achieving optimum results but this important area is often overlooked. By using Pure Brew, you can effectively and easily condition brewing water, and maximise effective fermentation. We strongly recommend using Pure Brew with all of your beers to improve their quality.

The addition of beer finings will improve the final quality of your beers. Starbrite finings are included with this kit. They will help your beer to clear quickly and the sediment will be more likely to stay at the bottom of bottles or barrels. If you are using Corny Kegs then it is important to clear the beer as much as possible before kegging. Beer Finings will promote a faster and more efficient fall out of sediment and haze particles prior to kegging (crash chilling your beer with a Glycol Chiller will also help to eliminate sediment). Harris Starbrite is a highly effective vegan-friendly beer fining, which is rapidly becoming a firm favourite with home brewers. It is suitable for all beers.

You could consider investing in a metal hop spider to effectively manage hop additions into the boiling process. The hop spider would sit inside your boiler and allow you to drop hops into the boil in a controlled way. Hop Spiders allow hops to boil with more free flow space around them. They are easily cleaned and can be re-used over and over again. They also prevent hop sediment (known as trub) from clogging up pumping systems when using all in one brewing equipment.