Dortmunder - Lagering and bottling

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Just a quick question on that... Is your " RT" 2 day period your Diacetyl rest? Still you can't ferment a lager for a specific period of time and hope to hit your D-rest correctly. You need to take consistant Gravity readings after the foam starts to fall back... I think at 4 weeks you will see a complete fermentation and no need for a D-rest. I would also lager for 8 weeks at 35* but thats just Per John Palmer's instructions on HTB...
 
The first at 50 or 52°F is primary fermentation. Don't set a time for this. A 1.050 lager should take about 10-14 days for primary fermentation to finish. If you want to do a diacetyl rest (I always do them, some other brewers only if necessary), raise the temp to 60-65°F when fermentation is starting to die down (krausen falling) for a couple days. If you want to get technical, you can take gravity readings to find this sweet spot and 6 points shy of target FG is the appropriate D-rest time, but eyeballing it is OK IMO. But keep in mind that it's better to be a little early than late.

Then slowly lower the temp back down to primary temps and, if you have bulk lagering abilities, rack it to a secondary vessel and slowly lower the temp. to 33-34°F and keep there for about 6 weeks for a 1.050 lager. Then bottle.

One can leave a lager in the primary for a few weeks without much issue, but ideally you want to get it off the primary yeast as soon as fermentation is finished. Most of my lagers are in the upper 1.040s for OG and I usually can transfer to secondary/lagering in 2 weeks (including a diacetyl rest). Then I lager for the appropriate time and then bottle/keg. Lagering times vary depending on OG and how fermentable the wort is (dextrin content). For a typical beer, 7 days per 8 points of OG is a good rule of thumb. So, 6 weeks for a 1.050 beer is close enough.
 
THANKS! This is our first lager. I had some issues with figuring out the wiring on the temp controller (Ranco digital) but once I realized that I had LOAD and LINE switched, it was all good. Hopefully as good as this lager will be.

I would rather eyeball it than take gravity readings and risk contamination. Thanks for the words of advice!

Sam
 
FYI: This my was my 1st solo attempt at a lager. I did a D-rest because I didn't want to take a chance of an off-flavored beer. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. I did have complete fermentation after 2 weeks but left it in primary for 4 weeks. I lagered at 40 because that's what my fridge did at the time. I lagered 5 gallons for 6 weeks and another for 8 weeks. Could not detect any difference. This beer went quickly! Even the non-homebrew people loved it. Good luck...
 
We are using a fridge, so I don't think we'll get much below 40ish. I feel the same way - better safe than sorry.

Oh yeah, I did a 5 gal batch and used the same grains posted for a 5.5 gal - I hit 1.054. I was a little off on the protein rest temp and mash temp too. I used a turkey fryer for the first time with a full boil. The previous batches were stove top partial boils.

I also upped the hops to include the full 2 oz of Mt Hood. I just dry hopped that last 0.5ish oz in the carboy, and we substituted liberty for crystal.

And I used the german lager yeast instead of the danish, as my lhbs was out. I plan on culturing that one and making some frozen starters. I don't like to pay that much for yeast!

One more question: What is carafoam? I've never heard of that one.

Thanks again, Sam
 
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