I have been brewing for a few months now and decided to try my first lager this past week. I planned on keeping the primary in a cool room for the first two weeks (which is about 65/66) and then move it to the basement (50ish) for the lagering period. I since have read a ton of more information about lagers and have decided to buy a temp controller for my mini fridge and use it for a controlled climate. Could anyone give me advice on whether or not I should move it directly to the fridge tonight and if so, what temp should I start at and for how long? Should I possibly do a week or two at 57? (since the +/-2) and then drop to 47(+/-2) for the remaining several weeks? Anyone's thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
I just brewed my first lager and did a ton of reading too
Not sure what your sources were but all of those temps are way too high compared to what I read. It will vary by yeast and what flavors you want, but generally I think you want to ferment at 50F and lager in the 30's. 65 is ale yeast temperature and your lager yeast will throw off all sorts of weird flavors. It would be like doing an ale at 80F.
Here's the process as I understand it (hopefully someone more experienced will comment!)
1) If you made a big-ass yeast starter, get the wort down to 50F before pitching. If not, go ahead and pitch at like 65 because the heat will stimulate the yeast to grow. You need a LOT of yeast for lagers, 2x as much as ales.
2) Ferment in the low 50's, take a gravity reading every week. When it's 3/4 of the way done, raise the temperature to the low 60's for 48 hours. This is a "diacetyl rest" and makes the yeast clean up after themselves.
3) After those 48 hours, rack to a secondary carboy.
4) Start cooling the carboy a few degrees per day until you're in the 30's. Let it lager there for at least a month, or up to a year(!) if it's a huge high-gravity doppelbock.
Kai from this forum has a really badass wiki article on fermenting lagers, if you want to check it out. That and
How To Brew are my sources.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Fermenting_Lagers
edit: of course this is "ideal and if you have infinite time". You can cut corners and probably come out with totally drinkable and tasty beer.