lager ferment question

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commonlaw

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I've had a lager (czech pils) going for a good couple weeks now, and it still has a layer of krausen and junk at the top. Is this normal for lagers? Ales all that falls to the bottom after a couple days. It's close to done (at about 1.014 right now, so I might be able to eek out a few more points), but I really want to get this thing lagering because it will tie up my chest freezer (fermentation chamber) for at least a month and I want to brew some ales soon (will have to resort to sticking them in a tub of water and hope for the best I guess). Do I wait for the krausen to fall or just go ahead and rack to a keg and lager when I think it's ready?
 
Here's what I do... You can't rush Lagers... ever... they will just never come out the way God intended them to...

Did you do a Diacetyl Rest? You need to check your gravity and once you are about 70-75% to final gravity you should raise the temperature up to 65* and rouse the yeast to get them to clean up the Diacetyl.

You would begin to Lager the beer as soon as you have reached your desired final gravity.
 
Here's what I do... You can't rush Lagers... ever... they will just never come out the way God intended them to...

Did you do a Diacetyl Rest? You need to check your gravity and once you are about 70-75% to final gravity you should raise the temperature up to 65* and rouse the yeast to get them to clean up the Diacetyl.

You would begin to Lager the beer as soon as you have reached your desired final gravity.

haha yeah, this lager has been a PITA (somewhere is my thread on how I accidentally froze my giant yeast starter and had to pitch dry yeast instead two days later). But it tastes great so far so I will love it anyway.

So I just did the diacetyl rest (though my freezer only got up to about 62 degrees--my little heater apparently was not strong enough). I guess I'll give it another few days, see if I drop any more, and then get to lagering, along with an alt that has been waiting patiently for the pils to finish up. Thanks for the help. So the stuff on top never really drops out on a lager, eh? Funny how we call it bottom fermenting yeast.
 
nah it will drop... It will just drop during lagering... or if you shake it a little bit, not a real shake but kind of shimmy so the beer kind of takes the Kreusen out... Not necessary but if it bugs you, go ahead and do it.
 
LLLAAAAGGGEEEERRRRRSSSSS are SSSSLLLLOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!!!

:mug:

now you tell me! ;)

nah it will drop... It will just drop during lagering... or if you shake it a little bit, not a real shake but kind of shimmy so the beer kind of takes the Kreusen out... Not necessary but if it bugs you, go ahead and do it.

Gotcha. This one is fermenting in a plastic bucket so I plan to rack to a keg for lagering (unless it needs to stay on all the yeast while it lagers, in which case I'll just leave it--not a huge deal).

Now I see why more micros don't make lagers. They are slow and finicky. But also delicious.
 
now you tell me! ;)



Gotcha. This one is fermenting in a plastic bucket so I plan to rack to a keg for lagering (unless it needs to stay on all the yeast while it lagers, in which case I'll just leave it--not a huge deal).

Now I see why more micros don't make lagers. They are slow and finicky. But also delicious.

You need to leave it on the yeast until it's done, and the krausen should fall. Then you want to rack it off of the yeast for lagering.
 
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