Brewing lagers

[nukebrewer]

I've never brewed a lager before, but I am planning on brewing one as soon as I get my hands on something in which I can keep the temp at lagering temps. I was wondering if there is anything I need to know before I jump into it. I really want to design my own recipe and I have a quite a bit of ale recipe design experience, but I would be willing to do a recipe for my first outing if y'all recommend it. Thanks for your help.

-AJ

 

[ghpeel]

Well the main thing with a lager is that you need about twice the normal amount of yeast. For your first one I would recommend a dry lager strain, specifically Saflager 34/70. Buy two packets and pitch both, which won't be cheap, but it does the job like a champ.

Get the wort down to 50F or so, give or take a few degree, before you pitch. If your normal chilling methods top out above that, then get a beverage tub and put 20-30lbs of ice in it on top of your carboy. That'll do the trick within 20min or so.

Ferment at around 52-54F and not any higher. I find my lagers don't take that much more time to ferment out than my ales, but some folks report fermentations of 2-3 weeks even. Lagers will ferment very slow/weak compared to ales, but that's perfectly normal. Don't expect a blow off, and don't freak out if you don't have krausen after the first 12-18 hours.

When your fermentation slows down (at about 1.022-1.024 for normal beers) you will want to raise your temps to around 65F for a diacytl rest. This perks the yeast up as they are finishing the beer, and helps you (a) hit proper attenuation at the end, and (b) cleans up any "butter" flavored diacytl. You should leave it at 65F for a few days.

After the diacytl rest, taste the beer. Lagers don't taste great young, but you should be able to tell if the beer is ready for the lagering process. If it tastes like a tart, funky young ale, then its good to go. Just make sure you don't taste any butter.

Cold crash the lager at as cold as you can get it, and then store it at 32F for as long as you can stand it. I typically ferment at 52F for several days, raise to 65F for a few more, crash it for 2-3 days, then rack to secondary for a month or so. You can skip the secondary and rack straight to the keg if you wish, you'll just have some yeast sludge at the bottom of the keg for the first few pints.

Some lagers need to be lagered more or less, depending on (a) their OG, and (b) the amount of specialty grains in the beer. Higher OG and more specialty grains (crystal, chocolate, etc) mean longer lagering times.

I've done very plain lagers in the 1.040-1.045 range that only needed a month of lagering to be great. My rich Vienna lager (brewing it again this weekend!) takes 3 months. Its 1.055 or so OG, and has Carabohemian Crystal and Carafa III special on top of a Vienna/Munich base, so it needs that extra time to smooth out and come together.

If you are bottling, you don't NEED to add any more yeast at bottling, even if you lagered for a month or two. I don't bottle, but most people report that bottling lagers is generally about the same as ales, with the lagers taking maybe a week longer to carb, but being otherwise normal.

Best of luck!

 

[Mojzis]

Well the main thing with a lager is that you need about twice the normal amount of yeast. For your first one I would recommend a dry lager strain, specifically Saflager 34/70. Buy two packets and pitch both, which won't be cheap, but it does the job like a champ.

Get the wort down to 50F or so, give or take a few degree, before you pitch. If your normal chilling methods top out above that, then get a beverage tub and put 20-30lbs of ice in it on top of your carboy. That'll do the trick within 20min or so.

Ferment at around 52-54F and not any higher. I find my lagers don't take that much more time to ferment out than my ales, but some folks report fermentations of 2-3 weeks even. Lagers will ferment very slow/weak compared to ales, but that's perfectly normal. Don't expect a blow off, and don't freak out if you don't have krausen after the first 12-18 hours.

When your fermentation slows down (at about 1.022-1.024 for normal beers) you will want to raise your temps to around 65F for a diacytl rest. This perks the yeast up as they are finishing the beer, and helps you (a) hit proper attenuation at the end, and (b) cleans up any "butter" flavored diacytl. You should leave it at 65F for a few days.

After the diacytl rest, taste the beer. Lagers don't taste great young, but you should be able to tell if the beer is ready for the lagering process. If it tastes like a tart, funky young ale, then its good to go. Just make sure you don't taste any butter.

Cold crash the lager at as cold as you can get it, and then store it at 32F for as long as you can stand it. I typically ferment at 52F for several days, raise to 65F for a few more, crash it for 2-3 days, then rack to secondary for a month or so. You can skip the secondary and rack straight to the keg if you wish, you'll just have some yeast sludge at the bottom of the keg for the first few pints.

Some lagers need to be lagered more or less, depending on (a) their OG, and (b) the amount of specialty grains in the beer. Higher OG and more specialty grains (crystal, chocolate, etc) mean longer lagering times.

I've done very plain lagers in the 1.040-1.045 range that only needed a month of lagering to be great. My rich Vienna lager (brewing it again this weekend!) takes 3 months. Its 1.055 or so OG, and has Carabohemian Crystal and Carafa III special on top of a Vienna/Munich base, so it needs that extra time to smooth out and come together.

If you are bottling, you don't NEED to add any more yeast at bottling, even if you lagered for a month or two. I don't bottle, but most people report that bottling lagers is generally about the same as ales, with the lagers taking maybe a week longer to carb, but being otherwise normal.

Best of luck!

This is great. I'm looking into lagering soon too and this was definitely helpful. I have a question though (sorry OP for high jacking). Do you store your bottles at room temp (~70) or lower? I mean WOULD you store your bottles lower IF bottling.

 

[nukebrewer]

Wow, thanks for all that great info. I want to brew a pumpkin lager in time for Halloween, so I should probably get started pretty soon, eh?

 

[no_borders]

If you have any experience with starters I personally recommend liquid yeast. Much cleaner flavor IMO. I also like to chill down to 45, then pitch and let it free rise to ~ 50, and hold it at that for 3 weeks.

Also when you take your sample after the diacytl rest, let it sit for a little bit before you taste it. Sometimes you'll get some precursors that you cant taste until they oxidize into diacytl. Happened to me when I first started doing lagers.

Good luck dude! Lagers are awesome, they just take time, so don't rush things, and you should get rewarded for your patience

 

[SpeedYellow]

ghpeel gave you some great advice above. Read and re-read it.

A rule of thumb is to lager a day for every point SG. So 1.049 would lager for 7 weeks. That's reasonable in my experience. 4-5 weeks is simply never enough.

 

[ghpeel]

Wow, thanks for all that great info. I want to brew a pumpkin lager in time for Halloween, so I should probably get started pretty soon, eh?

Just so happens I made a vanilla pumpkin lager last year myself. I plan on making it again soon.

4lb Pilsner
4lb Munich
8oz C120
6oz C40
4oz Flaked Oats
4oz Flaked Wheat
.9oz Palisades (10%) at 60min: 25 IBU
2 packets of W34/70 dry lager yeast
2lb of pumpkin puree roasted for 30min, added to the mash
1.054 OG

As the beer fermented, I put two vanilla beans into 4-6oz of vodka, then added 1tsp of pumpkin pie spice. I strained this and added the liquid after primary fermentation was done. After letting it lager for a month, I added 2tsp of pumpkin pie spice after tasting it.

This beer is basically a C120 + Vanilla + Pumpkin Spice delivery system, but still very dry and drinkable. I had the beer on tap for about 2 weeks and had about 4 gallons when I took the keg to a party and the keg was drained by the night's end. It won a 6 person "pumpkin beer brew-off" among some home brewing friends of mine that was held that night.

 

[ghpeel]

This is great. I'm looking into lagering soon too and this was definitely helpful. I have a question though (sorry OP for high jacking). Do you store your bottles at room temp (~70) or lower? I mean WOULD you store your bottles lower IF bottling.

From what I understand, you bottle condition just like with ales, so 70f is fine. The amount of fermentation that occurs for bottling is minuscule really, so the off flavors created by the lager yeast at that temp are impossible to detect.

1 trick that is supposed to work if you can't really lager your carboy at 32f is to just cold crash as best you can, then bottle, then after 3 weeks when you confirm the young lager is carbed, you shove as many bottles as you can in the back of the fridge and let them lager there for a few weeks before drinking.

 

[nukebrewer]

Just so happens I made a vanilla pumpkin lager last year myself. I plan on making it again soon.

4lb Pilsner
4lb Munich
8oz C120
6oz C40
4oz Flaked Oats
4oz Flaked Wheat
.9oz Palisades (10%) at 60min: 25 IBU
2 packets of W34/70 dry lager yeast
2lb of pumpkin puree roasted for 30min, added to the mash
1.054 OG

As the beer fermented, I put two vanilla beans into 4-6oz of vodka, then added 1tsp of pumpkin pie spice. I strained this and added the liquid after primary fermentation was done. After letting it lager for a month, I added 2tsp of pumpkin pie spice after tasting it.

This beer is basically a C120 + Vanilla + Pumpkin Spice delivery system, but still very dry and drinkable. I had the beer on tap for about 2 weeks and had about 4 gallons when I took the keg to a party and the keg was drained by the night's end. It won a 6 person "pumpkin beer brew-off" among some home brewing friends of mine that was held that night.

Wow, that sounds delicious. SWMBO loves pumpkin beer and this sounds like it will knock her socks off. Is the pumpkin raw or from a can and at what temp do you roast the pumpkin? I'm not sure if she's had a pumpkin lager, though, but if she hasn't she's in for an awesome beer.

One other question I had about lager brewing in general. After the 2-3 days of cold crashing followed by racking to secondary, do you keep it at cold crash temp or something else? Thanks so much for all your help. I'll let you know how the beer goes over with SWMBO.

@no_borders: Thank you for the valuable information. I am so excited to do my first lager.
@SpeedYellow: Thanks for that tip. I will certainly keep it in mind.

 

[ghpeel]

Wow, that sounds delicious. SWMBO loves pumpkin beer and this sounds like it will knock her socks off. Is the pumpkin raw or from a can and at what temp do you roast the pumpkin? I'm not sure if she's had a pumpkin lager, though, but if she hasn't she's in for an awesome beer.

One other question I had about lager brewing in general. After the 2-3 days of cold crashing followed by racking to secondary, do you keep it at cold crash temp or something else? Thanks so much for all your help. I'll let you know how the beer goes over with SWMBO.

@no_borders: Thank you for the valuable information. I am so excited to do my first lager.
@SpeedYellow: Thanks for that tip. I will certainly keep it in mind.

I used Libbey's canned pumpkin purée because it doesn't have any oils in the ingredients (very important). Roast it at 350 for 30min. However, to be totally honest, the pumpkin doesn't really add much to the beer. It's really just there to be able to tell people it's a "pumpkin" beer

People associate the pie spices as "pumpkin" flavor, that's the important part.

For lagers, you cold crash, rack to secondary, then you store that secondary at 32F (ideally) for 1-3 months (or longer). You HAVE to store that beer at that temp or else it's not "lagered" and it won't taste right. It will be OK, but lagers develop their "crispness" from the lagering process. If you can keep the beer at 32F for the lagerin period, then you should bottle the beer just like an Ale, and then put the bottles in the fridge for a month after they are carbed, before you start drinking them.

 

[nukebrewer]

Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully I can get my hands on a lagering vessel this week and brew this weekend.

 

[nukebrewer]

I did some figuring just now and I've come to the conclusion that if I brew it this weekend, I should be able to lager for about 1.25 months and still have enough time to bottle and store in time for halloween. Do you think that's long enough to lager? Thanks.

 

[billf2112]

Many "pumpkin" beers have zero pumpkin in them, they simply use the pumpkin pie spices and that gives you the pumpkin pie taste you associate with the pumpkin. I make coffee that way all the time, just add some good old McCormicks pumpkin pie spice to my coffee grounds and bam, pumpkin pie coffee, cheap.

 

[no_borders]

You should have plenty of time from now to Halloween to get a lager done. Pumpkin beers are awesome, though I've never tried a pumpkin lager. I've had good luck using whole pumpkins, but roasting is deffinetly the key, along with some rice hulls, to make sure your mash doesn't stick up on ya.