Lagering Time

My Oktoberfest finished priming a week ago, and has only been lagering since at 35°F. I know it's not going to be done for Oktoberfest, but I'm curious how long you guys usually plan to lager.

The OG BTW was 1.056 and FG was 1.016/1.018 (my notes say 1.016, but I find that hard to believe).

I was thinking 5-6 weeks should be adequate.

Any thoughts?

Did you do this as a lager or an ale? If it's a lager, it's going to take some time. Of course, that depends on a lot of variables-- yeast, recipe, how the fermentation ran... etc.

I've found that with my Oktoberfests, they start tasting really nice after about 3 months of lagering and continue to improve slightly after that. Of course, they are drinkable earlier, but patience has always paid off for me.

-Steve

It's a complete lager. I used wyeast 2206, I was in primary 3 weeks, then d-rest for about another week. The only times it was above lagering was during D-rest and priming obviously.

It's an extract so it obviously was NOT a double decoction. But it is a lager allright. No doubt about it.

I can move a top in front of it if need be, but I just can never really seem to get a good answer.

ask 100 different people and you will get a hundred different answers. I can hardly tell the difference in taste after a couple weeks so thats all i do. Primary, d-rest for a couple days at 70, begin walk down at 2 degrees a day to 35, then let sit for a couple weeks or until im thirsty, then i keg. I think they taste awesome and have never had any complaints.

I figured I'll probably just end up tapping it once I feel like drinking it.

Palmer in How to Brew says 7-8 weeks at 35 degrees. I'd say that would be minimum. I lagered my dopple for 7 weeks @ 38ish before tapping it. I had no complaints!

If it was me I'd wait as long as you can stand it and then start quaffing

TristanL said:

If it was me I'd wait as long as you can stand it and then start quaffing

Click to expand...

I agree with TristanL and Tom Petty: The waiting is the hardest part. There's some kind of science behind the waiting, as well as several centuries worth of German brewing techniques, and there are at least some people with the tastebuds to validate the importance of both the science and the techniques. I can't make any specific citations for any of those statements, though...

But, if it tastes good at two weeks, drink it!

I did my first "lager" in May (I say "lager" because I used Wyeast 2112 California Lager yeast and fermented at 60 degrees), and somehow waited until 10 days ago to tap it. It is a Vienna/Marzen and it's flippin' delicious after more than three months at 34 degrees!