Lager times?

[aoverturff]

Hi, I'm currently in the second week of primary fermentation for my first lager, a pre-prohibition type. its in the fridge at 50 degrees. how long should i leave it there before racking it to a secondary? do i need to do a diacetyl (sp) rest before racking? what temp and for how long in secondary before bottling? i used white labs american lager yeast WLP840. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[zacster]

I left mine in the primary for 10 days, then in the secondary for 3 weeks at 34 degrees. It is now in the bottle conditioning. I used WLP 830 yeast. The gravity had dropped to 75% attenuation so I figured I was good, and consecutive readings weren't changing.

You should take a gravity reading and see if it is done. I got a lot of advice to just let it be, let it take its time. It will be fine in any case, but if you follow the book on it maybe it will be a hair better. I'm doing partial boils using extract kits, so I'm not expecting perfection, just really good beer.

 

[GIusedtoBe]

You should be able to get the yeast specific info on white labs website. I am currently fermenting (forever it seems) a Maibock w/ Wyeast 2206 Bav Lager and it calls for a diacetyl rest at 58 F near the end of fermentation. This is my second lager and might be my last if it does'nt turn out.

I pulled it out to rack to secondary after a month and darn if the thing does'nt still seem to be fermenting. SG is 1.022 from original 1.070. It's getting there. I just stuck it back in the fridge and will let it go a little longer and see what happens.

I'm ready to get my beer fridge back!

Good Luck
Al

 

[Yooper]

Not all lager yeasts produce much diacetyl- so when fermentation is about 75% done, take an Sg and taste the sample. If it needs a diacetyl rest because you taste diacetyl, or have an oily feeling on the tongue, AND it's about 75% finished, you can do the diacetyl rest. If it's still not close to done, wait until it is. Then do the diacetyl rest, if needed. After the diacetyl rest, or if you're not doing one, rack to secondary. Then you can start the lagering process. I reduce the temperature about 5 degrees per day, until I"m at 34 degrees. Then I lager for 6-8 weeks or sometimes longer. After the lagering, you can bottle the usual way. If you lager more than 6 weeks, you may want to pitch some fresh yeast when you bottle. Any dry yeast is fine, since the flavor profile is already set. I use about 1/4 of a package of nottingham, which I add to the priming solution after it's cooled. Then I rack the beer as usual into it, and bottle.