Lager Fermenter space.

So I wan to start lagering. I have a chest freezer with the johnson temp controller I've been using to ferment ales. My dilemma is if I do lagering, my space is going to be occupied. Any alternative ideas for doing lagering, without taking up the space I need to ferment ales as well? Could I secondary the lager in the same fridge I have my food? Or am I stuck to just occupying my fermenting space if I lager?

You ferment around 50 and lager at near freezing. Normal frig temps are around 35 so that's fine if you keep next to your milk sort of speak. Sometimes I have to bump the temp up to accommodate a quick ale.

If I want to make an ale while I've got my freezer tied up with lagers, I've done a few different things. During the winter months I'll use an ice bath to keep my ales in the low 60s. I add a quart of ice before and after work. I'm not comfortable with that during the summer though.

Also, I've brewed an ale on the day I bring the lager up for the diacetyl rest and ferment it alomg with the lager in my freezer. The majority if not all of fermentation is over in a few days, so I'm comfortable taking it out of the temperature controlled freezer when I'm ready to drop the temp for lagering.

I've also fermented beers like a Düsseldorf altbier that I'll let finish fermenting during a lager's diacetyl rest and lager it along with the lager.

Last, recently I figured I'll brew two lagers and ferment them both at the same time. The lesson I learned is that they should be of similar gravity or your timing of the rest won't be ideal. (My schwarzbier is done and the maibock's not so I have to wait to do the rest until they're both done).

I keg so it is pretty easy for me. I keep the lager in the fermentation fridge for 2 weeks. Rack to a keg and lager in the man fridge. But, there's no reason you can't lager your beer in any fridge once fermentation is completely done.

I plan on picking up a kegarator after Christmas. So after primary, and a diacytel rest if I choose to do one, I could rack to a keg and lager in the kegarator? I guess while serving my ales?

I'm kind of running into the same problem. I have a ferm chamber and a keg fridge, so I'm planning on fermenting lagers at 50F or so, then taking out for a D-rest, and not really brewing an ale before then. then racking to a keg and throwing it in the keg fridge to lager. I guess if I really need to brew before the ferm chamber opens up, I was thinking of fermenting in the garage (which gets pretty damn cold in these Michigan winters) inside of a carboard box with a ferm wrap. I would only do that if waiting isn't an option.

biestie said:

Also, I've brewed an ale on the day I bring the lager up for the diacetyl rest and ferment it alomg with the lager in my freezer. The majority if not all of fermentation is over in a few days, so I'm comfortable taking it out of the temperature controlled freezer when I'm ready to drop the temp for lagering.

Last, recently I figured I'll brew two lagers and ferment them both at the same time. The lesson I learned is that they should be of similar gravity or your timing of the rest won't be ideal. (My schwarzbier is done and the maibock's not so I have to wait to do the rest until they're both done).

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This is a good solution. Regarding the potential differences in timing due to different OG and/or yeast strain, just take whichever batch needs to be d-rested first out of the chamber when it's ready--there's no harm to d-rest at room temperature in my experience.

You can ferment an ale while your lager is d-resting.

If I fermented for two weeks or so, racked to a keg for conditioning. Is the FG reached in that first two weeks? I thought the beer was transferred to the lower lager temperatures when the gravity was about half way or so. If that is the case isn't there a concern about CO2? Or when other people do this do you rig an airlock to it?

blackstrat5 said:

If I fermented for two weeks or so, racked to a keg for conditioning. Is the FG reached in that first two weeks? I thought the beer was transferred to the lower lager temperatures when the gravity was about half way or so. If that is the case isn't there a concern about CO2? Or when other people do this do you rig an airlock to it?

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Don't transfer out of the primary until fermentation is done. I think you have your timeline a little off.
1. Ferment at lager fermentation temps (50 ish)
2. Diacetyl rest if needed in the mid 60s. There are a few schools of thought on when to do this but I typically will when I'm within a few points of my fg.
3. When you've reached FG transfer to the vessel you're going to lager in. For me that's typically a keg, but can be a secondary (the only thing i still use secondaries for) and I think some may lager in the primary. But again, do that when your at your target gravity. Lagering temperature is near freezing.

Ah. I see now I guess ill do some reading on diacytel rest debates.

The debate is if/when you have to do one. The good news is: It doesn't hurt anything if you do choose to do a rest.

I'm planning on building a little side chamber (just big enough for two buckets), boring a hole in the lid of the chest freezer I ferment in, running an insulated tube to the side chamber, and using another temp controller to run a fan that will push the cold air into the side chamber as needed.

As far as the main lagering, I'm actually going to do my first this lager weekend followed by a 10 gallon batch of doppelbock a few weeks later.

Here's my fermentation schedule I've come up with.

1. Brew Vienna Lager, ferment at 50º until done.
2. Bring up to 65º for d-rest.
3. Move off yeast, drop a few degrees a day
4. On the day Vienna Lager gets to 50º, brew Doppelbock, repitch from Vienna Lager Yeast.
5. Both in chamber at 50º until Doppelbock is done.
6. Raise chamber to 65º
7. Drop temp a few degrees a day until I hit 34º. Lager for 2 months.

I've run this by a few people and they all seem to think it's a pretty spot on schedule.

If you ferment at 50 degrees for a couple weeks, you are fine to warm it up as the majority of the fermentation is done at the proper temp. I generally will then shut off the fridge for a week, then transfer to kegs for lagering. I lager in my serving freezer at 35 deg.