Lagering questions help needed

so i have four carboys fermenting away in my newly built fermentation chamber.... i read noonans new brewing lager beers 3 times to refresh, and then i come up with a lagering schedule....

(i pitched the correct amount of yeast according to mr malty)

i was going to ferment at 48 degrees F for 3 weeks, hit 58 to 60 for 4 days for the diacetyl rest.... then come down to 34 for 3 to 4 months.... is this ok????

the reason i asked is looking at the wyeast and whitelabs website, they say 50 to 55 is the optimum fermentation temp, with one yeast being 48 to 55.... noonan talks about 42 as does the brewkaiser guy.....

am i too cold at 48....

also i have 4 fermenters, all of them, but one, are at high krausen. that one is hardly showing any bubbles... (i may have forgotten to pitch or aerate that one... i dont know... any ideas?)

is it possible that having a mixture of the wyeast urquell and the whitelabs 800 is making that one fermenter sluggish??? (i pitched a mix on that one because they were out of the yeast i needed)


thoughts??? thanks in advance

I don't think you are too cold. When I make lager I do primary for about a week in mid 50's. I let it reach to room temperature for one day then secondary. I secondary at just above freezing - around 38-40f. The key is to gradually drop the temperature, by say 2-3 degrees each day.

Just make sure you stay above the freezing point (32f). I have a Johnson Controls thermostat and that lets the temperature drop to 4 degrees lower than the temperature.

I have had good results with this method.

Also I think 3 weeks is too long before you do the rest. Somebody chime in if I am wrong, but I believe for maximum effect you have to do the rest as soon as the krausen has fallen.

If the yeast is still alive, does it really matter if you wait a while before the diacetyl rest? Although I can see the argument in favor of doing it right when they are coming off their most active period.