my 1st lager

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tomc

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I'm brewing a lager (vienna style) for the 1st time. It's one week into primary fermentation. I've got a plan but would like to know what other's think.
The yeast is Wyeast Bohemian lager 2124 and it's an extract base with a small amount (~1lb) of specialty grains and about 2oz liberty and saaz hops (both low alpha acid). O.G. 1046.

My plan is
- 2 weeks primary fermentation at 52F.
assuming I see no activity in my airlock at the end of two weeks
(otherwise I'll wait longer)

- diacetyl rest, bring the temp up to 58F for 2 days.
The fridge regulator will be set to 58F for 48 hours. I expect some
lag in the wort temp so the actual time at 58F will be somewhat less.
The yeast description says it "benefits" from a 24 hour rest at 58F.

- rack to a secondary carboy. back to the fridge.

- lager time - 4 weeks. Start at 52F (the original fermentation temperature) for a few days then start to crank down the temp. Probably drop it a couple of degrees each day until I get to 45. Then just wait out the rest of the 4 weeks.
(I could go longer but I'm impatient and have no other homebrew ready).

- bottle. Think I'll use some dry yeast and 1.5C dme to prime it.
return bottles to the fridge for conditioning. I think I want to do this a below room temperature also. 6 weeks at 50F.

What do you think? Is it a good plan? Anything that should be done differently?
 
Sounds good, but i would lager it closer to 32 instead of 45, and for a bit longer if you can manage. The longer it lagers at around 32, the smoother it will be and the more pleased you will be when it comes time to drink it. I would probably go for no more than 1.25 c dme at bottling time. All of my lagers, after priming, I condition at room temp (about 65 in the basement). All of the cold conditioning occurs prior to priming/bottling, for me at least.
 
Exactly! It looks really good otherwise- just those two things I would do a bit differently. After you bottle carb them at 65-70 degrees, then it's fine to store them at 50 degrees though. And I would also drop the temp 5 degrees per day, until I was lagering at 33-34 degrees for 6 weeks.

Otherwise, it looks great!
 
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