Lager experiment

[npray]

I boiled a pound of golden light dme in a gallon of water, did a 15 min boil with .5oz of spalt 5aau and .5oz at FO, cooled to 64 and pitched a whole packet of S-23 and put the fermentor in my crawl space in a box with frozen bottles and a blanket. the temp in the box is 56-58 and there was a small krausen on the second evening.. i plan to leave it in the crawl space for a week, then bring it to room temp for a few days. rack to a secondary and lager for a week then bottle, carb and lager it in the beer fridge for a month after it is carbed in the bottles.
this is my first time playing with "lagers" and i'm hoping it comes out decent.. if not it's only a gallon lol

 

[Old-Irving]

A week in the primary may not be long enough for the yeast to work their magic. Take a gravity reading to see where you are at. I also lager my beer in the crawl space and Chicago has been great for lagering this year. I have a schwarzbier in the primary now and it has been three weeks.

 

[npray]

I'm thinking 2 weeks in primary will be better. I don't know if i should lager for a week before i bottle or just bottle, carb and then lager. what do you think? This is my first time playing with lagers.

 

[Old-Irving]

I have never done a lager period for one week but I think there are threads on using the secondary fermenter for specific time periods. Any type of aging will improve the beer. Good luck.

 

[katmeefer]

You definitely don't want to lager in the bottle unless you want lots of sediment, which kind of defeats the point of lagering. You should ferment for at least two weeks at whatever your optimal temperature is and then decrease temperature for two to four weeks then rack and bottle.


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[shelly_belly]

One week at 56-58 should be fine as mine are ready for the d-rest in about 10 days fermenting @ 48F. Room temp 1 week for the d-rest then Lager at least a week as cold as possible before bottling - more as a cold crash than lagering. Lager yeast tend to get in no hurry to flocculate.

 

[npray]

The krausen has dropped after a week, it's interesting seeing the difference between ale and lager fermentation. I plan on leaving it in primary for a few more days and then doing a D rest. Then i suppose i will transfer to secondary and lager at fridge temps for a week or two. I just worry about the yeast going dormant and not carb once I put it in bottles.

 

[npray]

The Beer has been bottled for a few days now, It is very clear and at the time of bottling smelled very clean and hoppy.. i plan to let them carb for a few weeks and keep them in the fridge for as long as i can keep my hands off of them lol