First lager mess up?

For a number of reasons, I had to put together my first lager hastily this weekend. Too hastily, I guess. For some reason (I thought I read this in one of Miller's books, but I can't find it now) I thought it was ok to pitch the lager at "normal" temps, which for me, is about 62F. Then, cool it down in the fridge over a period of time to the recommended temps for that yeast strain (Munich 2308). So I put it in the fridge after aerating, started chilling it down last night. This morning it's about 54F and bub-bub-bubbling away.

But I've since read that doing it this way instead of pitching at the yeast fermenting temp. can cause off-flavors. Did I mess this this first lager up big time?

Cheers

You pitched at 62 and chilled it to 54 overnight?

Sounds about right to me.

Sounds good to me...

And if you do a D-rest in about 10-14 days, for 72 hours, you should clean up any off flavors, before you drop the temps back for lagering in secondary....

Ideally, you'd want to pitch lager yeast cold (~50°F) and keep it there. It's even better to pitch them at ~45°F and warm it up to 50°F. The yeast manufacturers sometimes recommend pitching them warm and then cooling down to lager fermentation temps. But they also state to just pitch the vial (in the case of White Labs) or one packet (in the case of dry yeast) and that a starter is optional. If you really want to ensure a clean, well attenuated lager fermentation, you should pitch a large starter (proper pitch rate) or 2 packets of dry yeast/ 5 gal. at primary fermentation temperatures or colder.

However, pitching warm isn't going to ruin the beer. Depending on the individual yeast strain, it may produce some flavor-active compounds. Some of these, like diacetyl, can be "removed" with a diacetyl rest and others still can be cleaned up during lagering. So, I wouldn't worry much. It should still produce a decent beer. If you find it isn't as clean as you'd like it, you can always improve your temperatures on future batches.

Cpt_Kirks said:

You pitched at 62 and chilled it to 54 overnight?

Sounds about right to me.

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Yes, exactly what I did.

Revvy said:

Sounds good to me...

And if you do a D-rest in about 10-14 days, for 72 hours, you should clean up any off flavors, before you drop the temps back for lagering in secondary....

Click to expand...

Okay, so do I keep lowering it over time, or maintain it at, say 50-52 for 2 weeks?

Regardless, after 2 weeks, do I transfer to a secondary and do a secondary ferment at lower temp?

Sorry for so many questions!
Cheers

After 2 weeks (ish) you raise the temps to room temp (70 ish) for about three days, that is your diacetyl rest to clean out any thing you might be worried about, then I rack to secondary, and lager it at lower temps after for a few more weeks, or months..depending on how long you want to.

opalko said:

Okay, so do I keep lowering it over time, or maintain it at, say 50-52 for 2 weeks?

Regardless, after 2 weeks, do I transfer to a secondary and do a secondary ferment at lower temp?

Sorry for so many questions!
Cheers

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Your pitch temperatures weren't all that bad (like pitching at 70°F would have been), but I would do a diacetyl rest on this beer just to be safe. Keep it at ~50°F-ish until the fermentation starts to subside. You should be able to tell when the krausen starts to fall. This could take 7-10 days or as quickly as 4-6 days. It depends on the beer's gravity. When the krausen is about 1/3 to 1/2 fallen, raise the temperature to the low 60s°F and let it finish out fermenting.

Then lower it slowly (5°F per day) back down to 40°F-50°F (whenever it's convenient for you to rack). Then rack to secondary and slowly lower the temperature to lagering temps (e.g., 33°F) and lager for about 5-7 days for every 8 points of gravity (so a 1.048 beer would be good for about 5-6 weeks lagering).

menschmaschine said:

Your pitch temperatures weren't all that bad (like pitching at 70°F would have been), but I would do a diacetyl rest on ...
to rack). Then rack to secondary and slowly lower the temperature to lagering temps (e.g., 33°F) and lager for about 5-7 days for every 8 points of gravity (so a 1.048 beer would be good for about 5-6 weeks lagering).

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Perfect, thanks!