First Lager

[Morrey]

Preparing to try a lager after many successful ales. Have temp controller and chest freezer.

Can someone please suggest/link me a good thread (or novice primer) that addresses lager fermentation temp schedules that I need to follow to include yeast pitching considerations? I use liquid yeasts and make starters now, so I have flasks and stir plates if guided in that direction.

Thanks for your time!!

 

[Sailingeric]

I have done two lagers and I fermented at the temp recommended by the yeast. Then when it is done I bring it up to 68 or so for a couple days and then cold crash. Then I keg it and carb. It is decent after a week but really starts to shine after about 6 weeks in the keezer.

 

[Morrey]

I have done two lagers and I fermented at the temp recommended by the yeast. Then when it is done I bring it up to 68 or so for a couple days and then cold crash. Then I keg it and carb. It is decent after a week but really starts to shine after about 6 weeks in the keezer.

Did you use dry or liquid yeast? At what wort temp did you pitch your yeast?

 

[Sailingeric]

Did you use dry or liquid yeast? At what wort temp did you pitch your yeast?

I used White Labs American Lager yeast and pitched at fermentation temp.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Lagering 101

First make a large starter - about twice as large as an ale. Check YeastCalc or one of the other online calculators to figure out how big. Once it's made refrigerate it so you can decant the clear wort off before pitching.

Remove the yeast from the fridge and decant about the time you start brewing. This will let the yeast warm up to pitching temp while you brew. Now brew your beer and cool it to fermentation temp (low 50's). and pitch yeast. If you can't cool the wort low enough, you can pitch at 60F and slowly drop to fermentation temp in your chest freezer. The wort and yeast should be within 5F of each other when you pitch. I usually ferment in the 50-52F range. Depends on the yeast.

Once the gravity is about 75% of the way to FG (10 days +/-), warm it up to the low 60s for a 3 day D-rest. After that you should be close to FG. Then slowly ramp down (2-3 degrees per day) until you reach the mid 30s. Then leave it for 4-8 weeks depending on your level of patience.

This is a pretty basic, conservative lagering schedule. There are faster and slower ways to do it. Some people rack to secondary after the D-rest before lagering but unless you lager for several months this isn't necessary. Some people lager in the keg or bottles. Some people start fermentation in the 60s for 24 hours before dropping to ferm temp. Some people ferment longer and skip the D-rest. Some add additional yeast at bottling and some don't.

There are a lot of different variations but this schedule is fairly fool proof and produces a nice clear lager, assuming all your other processes were in line. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[C-Rider]

Here is a good link Flora Hawaiiensis

Ok I don't know what I did wrong here. LOL Promise I wasn't drunk at the time. LOL

 

[lolcats]

I would follow this
http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/

Clean lagers with precise temp schedule, it works!

 

[teamcoaster]

BlueHouse has pretty well covered the subject but I thought I'd add that dry yeast is an option.

One package of dry lager yeast, properly hydrated, is enough for my 10 gallon batches of German Pilsner. I use the Weihenstephan strain, Saflager W-34/70

I pitch in the upper 40's, and let the temps rise to about 55 and hold them there for 10-14 days. After checking the gravity, I raise temps to about 60 for a day or two, then bring it down to the thirties fairly quickly, 2-3 days. I put it into kegs, and chill in the keezer until needed.

It's drinkable fairly early, but best after a period of lagering. I have taken to calling it "49'er" because it really hits its stride after 7 weeks (grain to glass).

HTH.

 

[Jim311]

BlueHouse has pretty well covered the subject but I thought I'd add that dry yeast is an option.

One package of dry lager yeast, properly hydrated, is enough for my 10 gallon batches of German Pilsner. I use the Weihenstephan strain, Saflager W-34/70

I pitch in the upper 40's, and let the temps rise to about 55 and hold them there for 10-14 days. After checking the gravity, I raise temps to about 60 for a day or two, then bring it down to the thirties fairly quickly, 2-3 days. I put it into kegs, and chill in the keezer until needed.

It's drinkable fairly early, but best after a period of lagering. I have taken to calling it "49'er" because it really hits its stride after 7 weeks (grain to glass).

HTH.

Yeesh my LHBS recommends two packs of 34/70 for 5 gallons of wort! Maybe I need to stop using both.

 

[teamcoaster]

Yeesh my LHBS recommends two packs of 34/70 for 5 gallons of wort! Maybe I need to stop using both.

I misspoke with that post.

I use 2 packages of dry yeast for my ten gallon batches. Obviously, my mouth (or fingers) were moving more quickly than my brain.

Sorry for the error.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Lagering 101

First make a large starter - about twice as large as an ale. Check YeastCalc or one of the other online calculators to figure out how big. Once it's made refrigerate it so you can decant the clear wort off before pitching.

Remove the yeast from the fridge and decant about the time you start brewing. This will let the yeast warm up to pitching temp while you brew. Now brew your beer and cool it to fermentation temp (low 50's). and pitch yeast. If you can't cool the wort low enough, you can pitch at 60F and slowly drop to fermentation temp in your chest freezer. The wort and yeast should be within 5F of each other when you pitch. I usually ferment in the 50-52F range. Depends on the yeast.

Once the gravity is about 75% of the way to FG (10 days +/-), warm it up to the low 60s for a 3 day D-rest. After that you should be close to FG. Then slowly ramp down (2-3 degrees per day) until you reach the mid 30s. Then leave it for 4-8 weeks depending on your level of patience.

This is a pretty basic, conservative lagering schedule. There are faster and slower ways to do it. Some people rack to secondary after the D-rest before lagering but unless you lager for several months this isn't necessary. Some people lager in the keg or bottles. Some people start fermentation in the 60s for 24 hours before dropping to ferm temp. Some people ferment longer and skip the D-rest. Some add additional yeast at bottling and some don't.

There are a lot of different variations but this schedule is fairly fool proof and produces a nice clear lager, assuming all your other processes were in line. Good luck and enjoy!

This pretty much sums it up. I will add that using a thermowell in the primary fermenter made a big difference in the taste of my lagers (which are the bulk of my beers).

If you start the lager at a higher temperature to get it going (60-65 degrees), to get 5 gallons of a 60-65 degree wort that's in an active fermentation (which can warm the wort 5-10 degrees) down to 50 degrees is a losing battle using ambient temperature control vessel. It will only achieve the 50 degree target when it's nearly done fermenting and the bulk of the fermentation happened while it was at least 5-10 degrees too warm.

What has worked for me is to pitch a large healthy starter into 50-55 degree wort with the temperature control probe in a thermowell in the wort. This way the fermentation happens at the optimal temperature. If you pitch a good healthy starter, there is no fear of a slow fermentation start.