AHS Bavarian doppelbock temperature question

Hi -

I have a question regarding a Bavarian doppelbock I purchased recently from AHS. I can do the fermentation at 50-55 easily enough because I have an unheated New Hampshire basement. That part's no problem.

On reading the instructions, though, I discovered it's preferable to perform a secondary "fermentation" at 35-40 deg. F. I'm not sure how much fermentation would be going on at those temps, but that's what the sheet says.

So, I have a few options -

1. Perform the secondary at 50-55 as well

2. Perform the secondary in the bulkhead entrance to my basement. Hovers around 40-50 this time of year, but could go much higher with unpredictable spring weather, and much colder at night.

3. Bottle it after primary fermentation is done, and let the stuff do its "secondary" step in bottles. Bottles can and do go in my fridge.

4. Try to jerry-rig something with ice and a cooler somehow.

Do I have other choices? Am I confusing bottle conditioning with "lagering"?

I've seen other threads on this, but so far I'm a little confused. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Tom

Fermentation needs to be done before racking it plus a week or so. The secondary fermentation should really be called the conditioning/clearing, or in this case, the lagering stage. It would be nice to keep the temps constant but it is OK. The carboy in a big thing of water (maybe no ice even) will help stabilize the temps a lot.

Also, read up on diacetyl rests, they need to be done before fermentation is finished.

You will need to bring the temps back up to 65-70 when fermentation is 60% or 70% complete. This will allow the yeast to clean up after themselves called a diacetyl rest. After that is when you switch to the secondary/lagering container. For lagering a doppelbock you will need to bring it down to the 30 - 35 degree range and keep it there for months.

Thanks for the replies. Well, it looks like I took on more than I was ready for There's no way I could hold those lagering temps without some refrigeration assistance. No matter, I'll clear the bottom 2 shelves of my fridge - the fermenter can go in there until I get a second fridge or freezer chest. Is it really "months" for lagering? The instructions say three weeks. I take it that's a minimum for the lagering step?

Tom

Powchekny said:

Thanks for the replies. Well, it looks like I took on more than I was ready for There's no way I could hold those lagering temps without some refrigeration assistance. No matter, I'll clear the bottom 2 shelves of my fridge - the fermenter can go in there until I get a second fridge or freezer chest. Is it really "months" for lagering? The instructions say three weeks. I take it that's a minimum for the lagering step?

Tom

Click to expand...

I would suggest reading How To Brew Ch. 10 for information on lagering.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10.html
There are some good guidelines for what temperatures you should use, etc. I have a feeling that you might be able to keep it at a reasonable lagering temperature in your basement bulkhead.

Also, the wiki has some great info on making a lager.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Fermenting_Lagers

It looks like there's a lot more to lagering than I thought. Thanks for the links.

Looks like it's time to invest in another fridge! Good luck