Proper Lagering?

[The Mad Hatter]

I have a Kolsch that I put into secondary yesterday. I was thinking about trying to lager it, but I do not know how to go about it. I have a spare fridge in the garage, and I would like to know if that will work. I do not have a tep controller. Just the normale thermostat that the fridge runs on. Can you sust put the secondary into the fridge and lager it that way? I used WLP029 German Kolsh Ale Yeast, and I primaried it at 65*. It is in secondary now @ 63*. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Arneba28]

Yeah cold conditioning it at the regular temp in the fridge will be fine. It will take a little longer for it to age nice due to the lower temp in the fridge then if you where actually using a kegerator or something that you would set at an actual lagering range like 44-56

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Cool. I was hopeing that it would work out OK. I would guess that if I turn the fridge to max cold that it would keep 40* ish. I was thinking about keeping it out there for three week. Do you think that it would take longer than three? How do you know when "Lagering" is complete?

 

[Arneba28]

Well because it just in secondary now and you fermented at ale temps you will have the kolsch yeast profile at ale temps. Its to late to get a good lager profile for this beer. You can really leave it in there as long as you want. Now your just bulk aging it (slowly at 40) and your basically cold crashing it at the same time. Cold crashing works great for clearity and getting to that crystal clear point.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Thanks. That sounds like good advice. I think I will finish the secondary out for two to three week, then bottle. I like the crystal clear idea!

 

[menschmaschine]

Noonan recommends lagering times like this:

Dextrinous beers = 7-12 days at 33-34dF for each 2d Plato (8 points SG) of your OG

Lighter beer lacking dextrins = 3-7 days for each 2d Plato

So, if your OG is 1.048, you could lager for ~40 days.