Crazy brew day - first lager

First Lager - Munich Helles - simple AG recipe.

Things went bad when:

A. my digital thermometer crapped out.

B.I couldn't leave well enough alone and I decided to collect weaker runnings to add DME to to make another batch...at the same time....inside on the stove.

C. I had still more weak runnings after 2nd batch but no DME, but I did have 5 lbs of cane sugar...............

My temps on the all grain probably fluctuated between 140 and 160 for 10 min. before I realized that my digital wasn't working right.

I grabbed a meat thermometer that was no where near precise(well done beef was one of the temps it recognized)
When it was at 150(my target) about 10 minutes in, I set my tun(my bottling bucket) by the fire place with a small fire going. It held beautifully for anothe 50 minutes. (I kept turning the bucket so it didn't get too hot)

All went well with the sparge and boil...except that my 2nd batch inside boiled over while I was watching my AG carefully.

Too lengthy, oh well. All 3 batches are percolating at their proper respective temps(only the AG will be a lager). I am excited to taste the extract ale with the secondary AG runnings.
The third batch was free, so we'll see if I get lucky or not.

Too bad on the thermometer. That's why I use analog , but I think I'm in the minority. I'd be interested to see how your temp fluctuation affects your attenuation. I have had a couple batches with some fluctuating temps (one has to be careful with direct heat mash tuns!) and had a couple lower attenuators. Now begins the waiting... let us know how it turns out.

Oh, I forgot to ask... what yeast did you use?

menschmaschine said:

Oh, I forgot to ask... what yeast did you use?

Click to expand...

My lhbs had some white labs german lager yeast that was out of date and that was all they had. I got that and a packet of Dry Lager yeast from *shudder* Australia. No disrespect to Australia, it's just that someone...recommended"any clean fermenting german or belgian yeast". I don't know how my lhbs happened to be out of all but a wit german lager yeast. Should I have gone for that?

cheezydemon said:

My lhbs had some white labs german lager yeast that was out of date and that was all they had. I got that and a packet of Dry Lager yeast from *shudder* Australia. No disrespect to Australia, it's just that someone...recommended"any clean fermenting german or belgian yeast". I don't know how my lhbs happened to be out of all but a wit german lager yeast. Should I have gone for that?

Click to expand...

This is what I recommended: "WLP830 or any clean German/Bavarian Yeast that fits the style"

So, I'm confused... did you use the out-of-date WLP830? or the dry lager yeast? I'm assuming you are talking about Superior Dry Lager Yeast. In a selfish way, I'm hoping you used that. I have 2 packets in my fridge I need to use and was wondering how they would turn out. I used WLP830 on my Helles, but next time I'm thinking of trying White Labs Southern German Lager yeast WLP838 to see the difference.

It was white labs German lager yeast. I also threw in the dry yeast just for good measure lol. I figure this batch was a crap shoot anyways, so we will see what happens.