First Lager!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

surffisher2a

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
139
Reaction score
14
Location
Wilmington
Ok, I done plenty of Ales in my life, but I just got a nice fancy deep freezer with a temp controller on it for doing fermentations. So I plan to make a late oktoberfest for my first lager. I just want someone to check over my intended fermentation plan to make sure its Ok.

SG - 1.056 Yeast - White labs WLP820 with 1 gallon starter

Here is my current plan of attack --

Cool wort to 65F and pitch yeast
Set temp control to 52F and let it go until SG is around 1.030
Step up to 65F in 3F to 4F increments each day
Keep at 65F for 3 days and step back down to 52F
Leave it at 52F for 2 to 3 weeks
Cold crash @ 35F and Keg
 
I know people say to pitch warm and then cool as fermentation takes off, but I personally don't believe in it. You are making a big, healthy starter. Cool your beer to 52 (or whatever you will ferment at) and pitch 52* starter.

For me, I bring the temp up faster. I just bring my Oktoberfest upstairs from my basement and let it free rise to 68-70 for my d-rest (at ~75-80% fermentation). I'm not saying it's right or wrong (and maybe someone will give a compelling argument why your method is better), it's just what I do. My initial thought was that I wanted to get to 65f before fermentation was done and my fear was that raising the temp that slowly would have the beer finish fermentation at 55-60 instead of 65-70. Maybe that isn't a real concern. Again, I'm not sure.

I lager colder than you plan. More like 32-34f.
 
I know people say to pitch warm and then cool as fermentation takes off, but I personally don't believe in it. You are making a big, healthy starter. Cool your beer to 52 (or whatever you will ferment at) and pitch 52* starter.

For me, I bring the temp up faster. I just bring my Oktoberfest upstairs from my basement and let it free rise to 68-70 for my d-rest (at ~75-80% fermentation). I'm not saying it's right or wrong (and maybe someone will give a compelling argument why your method is better), it's just what I do. My initial thought was that I wanted to get to 65f before fermentation was done and my fear was that raising the temp that slowly would have the beer finish fermentation at 55-60 instead of 65-70. Maybe that isn't a real concern. Again, I'm not sure.

I lager colder than you plan. More like 32-34f.

I had the same thought as you at first, but after doing some reading on that particular yeast a lot of people had trouble getting it going at the colder temps, so i figured I would give it a little bit of a head start.

I will probably drop my lagering temp down to 43.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Back
Top