First lager - success!

[BrunDog]

Did a Yuengling clone by merging a couple of recipes. Color is spot on and I could read moby dick through it. Thick white head and great lacing. Slightly more hop bitterness and a tad drier than Yeungling, but I will happily drink the hell out of this. I would say my most complete, successful beer at initial tapping so far. Better than pro quality, dare I say! Maybe even improve with time but I doubt it will be around more than a month. I did the brulosophy accelerated fermentation schedule and it worked like a champ. Not even a hint of diacetyl. Woohoo! Super psyched! Cheers!!



-BD

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Nice one! That's a great looking beer. Which yeast did you use?

 

[Sailingeric]

Congrats. I am planning to do my first lager this weekend. Hope it turns out as good as yours.

 

[Cyclman]

Congrats. I expressed many times that I think Lagers are underrepresented and under-respected by Craft drinkers. The Next Big Thing? They should be.

 

[BrunDog]

Nice one! That's a great looking beer. Which yeast did you use?

Thanks man! This was Wyeast 2035 (American Lager). I made a full 2 liter starter and pitched into 5.5 gals at 55. I kept it at 53 for 6 days, then slowly raised to 65 and left there for 8 days. Then slowly down to 33. Kept there for 2 weeks. Put in keg for a week and kept at 35 for a week, then gassed. Now drink!

-BD

 

[tgolanos]

As a native Pennsylvanian, I must say I really do miss Yuengling. I might have to do a clone one of these days.

 

[erick0619]

Do you have a black box like bru? If not what was your ramping method and also what was your og and how long till you started the d rest? Im just really curious because ill be brewing my first lager tomorrow and i wanted to use his lagering method. Congrats on the brew it looks really tasty.

 

[BrunDog]

I have a fermenting box that I built which is cooled by a hacked up dehumidifier /glycol system I made. The glycol is pumped through a radiator inside which cools the air. I did this so I can transition to a conical someday.

It is controlled by an STC1000, so all the ramping was manual. I have thought about a BrewPi or using another BCS (like on my rig) but it hasn't been a priority. So I just bumped it a few degrees each time 2x or 3x a day. Roughly 8-10 degrees a day. So it took a few days to ramp down to 33 from 65.

But this method did seem to work very well as the beer is ice clear and has no detectable diacetyl. I also had a healthy starter and cooled the wort to pitching temp. I had the starter at the same temp upon pitching, so there was no thermal shock to the yeast.

I did the starter at a slightly cooler temp than room temp, also in my fermenter box, but I understand this is not that critical.

-BD

 

[BrunDog]

Not kidding when I say it's clear!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1444586186.737393.jpg

-BD