First Lager

[W7JRR]

Been doing Ales foot a few years, and figured since work is sending me out of town for a few months, this might be as good a time as any to try to run a lager, and use my kegerator as a fermentation chamber. Built a starter big enough according to Brewers Friend. Depending on where I look the bottom end of the temp range for WLP820 is stated as 48, 50, or 52. The kegerator only comes up to 46. I assume it should still ferment at this temp, just quite slowly; it will however be left undisturbed for 3-4 months once I leave. I still have roughly a week before I go, and see a couple options.

1- just let it go at 46 and see if it did it’s job in a few months.

2- let it ferment at room temp, well above range for a few days , and then move it back into the kegerator at 46 to clean up for a few months. I don’t know that this would clean up the unwanted esters that would be likely to develop.

 

[micraftbeer]

Between those two options, I'd say option 1 is the better. With a good starter, and oxygen added, it should ferment, just slowly like you said.

The concerning thing to me is leaving it on the yeast that long. But that's maybe just me. I know people ferment and serve out of the same keg, so maybe you won't get any funky flavors out of that.

Option 2 would probably be bad for esters like you said, plus, dropping it into the cold in the midst of fermentation will be drastic for the yeast and they'd probably stall out. So then you'd have two bad things going on- a lot of yeast flavors you don't want plus an under attenuated malt flavor.

 

[lumpher]

820 is known for stalling, and lagers are touchier than ales. For a lager with 820. I ferment for about a week at 50 degrees, then bring the temp up to 65 for.a few days for a diacetyl rest, but in your situation, that's not going to work. I think I'd do a big ale, like a barleywine or a big Porter, and save the lager for later when you can give it the attention it requires. If you really want to do a lager, though, the most tolerant for that length of time that I know of is a Dark lager, like a Bohemian Dark Lager. if you have the time to get the ingredients, you might brew 1 of those, set it at 50 degrees, and leave it, rhen when you get back bump it up to 65 for a few days, but there are a few problems with this, too (autolysis, dry airlock, yeast too dead when you get back to clean it up), but the best option I see for a lager.

 

[dmtaylor]

Congratulations, you have selected the slowest and most fussy lager yeast that exists. Fortunately, if you plan to leave it alone for a few months, it should turn out okay. Keep it cool at your 46 F or whatever, and it should be alright. Just don't be terribly surprised with the FG is around 1.020 because it can't get much lower than that. Next time try ANY other lager yeast, you'll get better results.

 

[hottpeper13]

I would either put a heat wrap and 2 layers or reflextec and plug it into a ST1000 controller or maybe the controller can operate the kegerator.