First lager

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Malichaidog

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5 gallons of czech pilsner with wlp800 fermenting in my chest freezer at 52. How long should I let it ferment? At what point should I rack to secondary, an then how long till I keg it?
 
I'm not telling you what to do. This is what I do. Pitch at 48. Let it ferment in the low fifties. When it slows (usually less than a week and 8-15 points above FG) I move it to room temp for a few days. Then I'll secondary or keg depending on where I have the space. Sometimes I crash the primary first. I've made a lot of lagers and it works well for me (I have six in my pipe line now.) 3-6 weeks lagering.
 
Once you get to about 1.020, warm to room temp for 3-4 days and then rack off the yeast to keg/secondary and then lager for 4+ weeks before tapping the keg. The longer your lager, the better the results.
 
I warm it to 64º once I hit about 75-80% of my expected attenuation. I usually leave it at that for about a week to make sure the yeast are all done, then I crash it for a week, then keg, then lager 1 week per 10 gravity points (i.e. my 1.048 Helles will lager for 5 weeks).
 
If you chilled to 52 before pitching, then you likely won't need a diacteyl rest. I always chill to fermentation temps (or below) and never need to do a diacetyl rest. I usually ferment my lagers for 2-3 weeks and then they go straight to the keg. I then let them sit for a week before moving them to my lager chamber. Once fully chilled, I hook up my CO2 to carbonate (slow method at serving PSI)
 
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