Fermentation Advice for Shiner Bock Clone

Newbie here on 5th batch.

These are the instructions received from Austin Homebrew Supply:

"10 days of fermentation in 50-55 degree.
After that slowly raise the temperature to 60-70 for two days to improve flavor.
Then, slowly cool the beer down to 40 degrees for 3-4 weeks."


Lots of generic questions:
What do y'all think about this process?
Are these instructions the best way to age this beer?
Is there another appropriate way to age this beer?
Does it need to be down to 40 degrees for a month before bottling?
Do I need to raise the temperature to 60-70 for two days?

Feel free to throw in your thoughts. Thanks guys!

Although I normally wouldn't recommend it, on lagers I always secondary right after my diacetyl rest, (the 2 day warm up).

I have bottled after 3 weeks of lagering, but really if you can wait a month to 6 weeks I'd do that. Other than that everything looks great, good luck.

Let me know how the recipe turns out, I LOVE Shiner Bock, and I have my recipe on another thread here of my Shiner Ruby Redbird clone.

I would say yes. Those instructions seem correct for a clone of Shiner Bock. That particular beer is a lager so it needs the colder fermentation and extended "lagering" or aging preferably at 40 or below for a few weeks or more. It's hard to give specifics as to when exactly it's done, it can be different in each case, but those instructions seem like a good general guideline to follow for this beer.


Edit: as mentioned by the above poster, with lagers it's a good idea to transfer to a secondary fermenter after the warm up is done. I usually cool it back down into the thirties for a couple of days to make sure everything settles out and then I do the transfer. You will want to make sure your secondary has minimal headspace as well.

Thanks for the help guys. All great advice. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Also a newbie 4th brew. How important is the temp change while fermenting. I put mine in a closet around 65 degrees and hope for the best. I dont have the tools to adjust the temp that precisely. What do you recommend to achieve this precise temp control if I were to buy the tools? Will my beer taste fine with just a "cool dark" environment? So many question. Thanks in advance!

Temp control probably plays the biggest factor in how well your beer will turn out. But you do what you gotta do to brew if ya know wadda mean! You can build yourself an STC-1000 temp controller for little to nothing, and pick up a used deep freeze off craigslist and your good to go.

Welcome to the forum, hang on because it's a wild ride this brewing hobby!