Would like to attempt a lager

Hey all.

I've competed my fermentation chamber.

I have clearly never made a lager before. I would like to pick up some Yeast from the LHBS and ferment a lager!

My question is this:

What yeast would be suitable for an average North American lager, or even a Coopers lager kit.

I plan to primary ferment in my bottling bucket for the first week. Then transfer to my primary fermentor which is a 6gal Max plastic bucket.

So I need a carboy to lager in? Minimizing headspace? Or will my primary be ok?

The reason I will start my main fermentation in my bottling bucket is because I only have the two buckets, and I read I must get the beer off the yeast cake after a week to lager it in a clean vessel for the next 4-6weeks.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, SS

 

I never brewed a lager yet but would like to once the weather cools down in the South. I'm under the impression to lager in the primary and not to rack to a secondary. But what do i know. Will be following this thread for future brewing.

 

Temperature control is the critical part. You need to be able to get down to just above freezing. I did my last lager without transferring to secondary. It was a total of just over 4 weeks. Longer than that I would do the lager phase in a secondary.

Use a lager yeast. Many lager kits are really light ales...

I would get another fermentation vessel. The chance of getting something nasty growing in a spigot during fermentation is relatively high...

If you are doing a secondary, minimal head space is optimum, the more air, the more chance of oxidation or infection.

 

Brewing a few lagers of late with good results.

A few things to hit

• Lots of yeast
  
• Oxygenation of the wort
  
• Precise temperature control
  
• Do it all in the primary. NO SECONDARY
  
• When FG is reached rack it to keg or bottling bucket for immediate bottling.
  
• Lager in the keg or the bottle(after its carbed up)

Arbitrary times for moving a beer are always a bad idea, especially with lagers. Your week time-line, any particular reason for a week to rack to a secondary?

There's a lager recipe in my recipe tab if you're interested.

I'm not very experienced but am getting good results this way using WLP833.

 

I had no base line to go off of other than what I've read from Google.

I would 100% follow someone's advice that is telling me they've had good results in my thread. I appreciate your guide here.

I would prefer to keep in my Primary FV for the entire fermentation for obvious reasons. I'm happy to read that is the case for lager.

I will not secondary, and precise temp control won't be an issue. My temp controller/fermentation chamber in a chest freezer will be great.

As for the yeast, I will look around the LHBS and see what strains they carry and possibly create a starter?? Get as much cultures going as I can before pitching.

Never made a starter either TBH.. Lol

 

1. You need to control the Temp for the Yeast: Normally around 50 Degree F + or -.
2. After a week you need to slowly raise the temp to 67 Degrees F (5 degrees per day. Diacytel Rest or it will have Popcorn Butter Taste.
3. Let set at 67 for 2 days.
4. Slowly lower Temp back to Yeat Temp Normally around 50 Degree F + or -. (Same 5 Degrees per day)
5. Leave at Yeast Temp for 3 more Weeks.

Use a Liquid Yeast!!!!!! Wyeast or White Labs. A Starter is better or use two packs for 5 gallons.


Try to Pitch at Yeast Temp up to maybe 5 Degrees above.

Dry Yeast Works but is "fruity" to me.

We regularrly do lagers and have a freezer fermentaion chamber.

There is nowhere to "hide" an off flavor in a lager. I personally only lager (store) for about a month before ready to drink, so a 2 to 2 1/2 months before you can drink it.

 

With lagers as with all styles stack the deck in your favor.

Target an appropriate pitch rate. Typically double the rate you use for an ale. I make starters every time I use liquid yeast. A simple task with about 5 minutes of actual work involved. (Thread on that very topic in my sig below)

Oxygenation of the wort

Pitch cooler than ferment temps and try to catch fermentation when it's about 1-2 plato above FG to ramp the temperature to ensure optimal attenuation and allow time for an optional rest at higher temps.

Crash cooling and finings work nicely too.

Here is a great trove on info on lager brewing

Lots of different ways to tackle lagers.

 

Lots of different information on this thread. Let me tell you what I do to f**k it up a little bit more...

I try to do at least one lager a year in the fall/winter. Lager yeast is what I use for yeast. Not sure how I figured out to use this yeast, but it works.

I put the primary in the garage for (x number of) weeks (I think 3, maybe 2, maybe 4), before bringing it back inside for its dye-a-see-tall (<---whatever) rest for I think a day or two.

Then in the keg it goes to be put in the kegerator for ~1 - 1.5 - 2 months.

BAM!!! Beer.

It should reach its peak about one month after it's gone.

 

lagers you really need two things- temp control and good yeast handling. some lager yeasts are very estery and almost fruity tasting, while others are very clean tasting. dont use one style and expect to get the other one in your glass.

always make a starter, and treat those yeast nicely. if ferment temp range is 45-55, dont do a starter at 75F room temp in august. 60ish is better. make it a few days in advance, let it go slowly and build cell count, then decant the wort.

oxygenate your yeast if you have the equipment. if not just swirl it often. ditto for your beer in primary, swirl once or twice a day for first few days. makes yeast happy.

do a 90 minute boil, it greatly reduces your chance of DMS in the beer. good rolling boil. you can add more water if necessary.

diacetyl rest is dependent on strain of yeast, some really need it. others dont. lots of good healthy yeast with plenty of oxygen dont make alot of diacetyl. plus some strains just dont produce alot to being with. but it wont hurt to do the d-rest to be on safe side.

whether or not you need to "lager" for weeks or months is also yeast strain -dependent. some need it, some dont. generally the more fruity/estery the more it needs to lager and mellow out. your mileage/taste may vary.

leaving it on yeast cake for a month or so is fine. but if you're going to bother with a long lager rest, you might as well rack it off the yeast cake. fining with gelatin, isinglass, biofine, etc is a good idea at this point. just be cafeful not to do a bunch of splashing and oxidizing your beer when you transfer. if you have a kegging setup, fill the secondary carboy with co2 before you rack the beer into it to avoid oxygen.

 

Starters can and should be made at room temperature for ales or lagers. No difference in method there. You growing yeast not making beer. Making a starter at cooler temperatures is not indicated for lager brewing.

I would never swirl my beer in the fermentor regardless what I'm brewing.

I believe that to be extremely bad advice.

As you've probably gathered by now, folks skin the lager cat in very different ways.

I would stongly encourage you to read the link I shared earlier from Kai's website. The guy is a living legend when it comes to homebrewing, especially in relation to lager brewing and German styles and techniques.

You'll be better able to distill out the bad from the good in the answers and advice you've gotten. There is plenty of both IMO thus far. I'm sure many folks will view my advice in one category or the other also.

There is also a very different approach favored by some. A fast lager method. You can read more about that here from the highly respected @Brulosopher who is a proponent of it.

Making lagers and hybrids is somewhat more complex but is a lot of fun and well worth it. I wish you every success.

Here are some recent examples of mine.

A Munich Helles


A Vienna Lager


A Munich Dunkel in the works

 

Mmmmmm those look tasty.

I'm about 12 brews in... So I can't wait to get a lager started as my stout bottle conditions.

Pretty excited. I'll have a look at those links provided.

 

I guess I use the fast lager method or Schedule F from Kai. I am going to try Schedule C next time. For your first one, the Fast Ferment is the way I would go.

 

Here is how I'm doing my first lager in my first fermentation mini fridge.

I made two 1.6L starters on a stir plate during the week. Brewed the beer and pitched at 50 because I thought I wanted it to be cool. I didn't see much happening after 30 or so hours so I did research and it said the yeast I'm using works well at 55 so I increased the temp. I plan to let it sit there until around 1.025 then add fermaid K to help finish it off. I don't know if I'll increase to the mid 60s.

To lager I will put it in a keg and keep it in my kegerator at 40F for a month or two. Lagering is the process of keeping the beer cold for an extended period from my research.

 

Whats the fermaid k for?

55F seems very warm for a lager fermentation to me.

 

Fermaid k will be to give the yeast an extra boost when fermentation starts to slow down. I had my last beer start to stall at 1.022 and dropped to 1.012. I'm going to use it again this time because I'm starting at 1.081 with some Zurich Lager I've kept in the fridge for almost a year without using. This is also why I made two starters.

For diacetyl I'm going to re read the section of Yeast about diacetyl production and removal from yeast. White labs says this strain is malty so I don't expect much.