Lagering an English Pale "Ale"

[nollie11]

So I'm new to lagering but have been home brewing for about 4 years now. I've decided to take an English Pale Ale extract kit, add an extra 1oz of fuggle hops, and lager it to turn it into an IPL. Don't ask me why I've tried to transform something simple into something complex, but hey, isn't that the fun of brewing sometimes?

Here is my approach & my question:

1. I did a 60min boil, used an immersion wort chiller, and pitched some dry yeast. After about 24 hours I noticed a pretty reasonable amount of activity. The primary has been going for 2 days now at 50dF in a plastic bucket from NB.

2. How long should I do primary for? My plan was to let it go for 2 weeks, rack it off the trub into my Corny keg, do the diactyl rest for 2 days, then bring it down to 35dF at 2 degree increments per day, then let it go for 4 weeks, force carb, and drink.

For the d rest, if it was at 50dF for primary, how high should I take it to undergo d rest?

Also, after secondary is complete in the keg, do I HAVE to rack to a serving keg or will it be fine in the same keg as is? I do not have a shortened dip tube and do not wish to modify my equipment. Can I just pull a couple of sludgy first pints and chuck them? Will everything remaining be delicious clear beer?

Thanks in advance for any feedback, etc.

Tim

 

[pdxal]

What dry yeast did you use? That will pretty much determine most of the rest. I hope you aren't using an ale yeast and trying to ferment at 50°. If lager yeast, did you make sure to use a pitch calculator to determine pitch rate?
You should primary until the gravity is stable and fermentation is finished if you do want to use a secondary.
Diacetyl rest in the low to mid 50's for a lager yeast. It may take a while to warm to that temp, so you might want to hold it there for more than 2 days, perhaps 4-5.
Your lagering plan should work fine.
You could just pull off a couple of yeasty pints first before serving the rest of the keg if you wish. There's lots of ways to manage that, but that method works fine too.
Good luck.

 

[nollie11]

So the brew shop ended up swapping out the dry ale yeast that came in the kit with dry Nottingham lager yeast. I did not use a pitch calculator; I simply pitched the dry yeast as is (per instructions on the back of the packet). I am using a chest freezer on a temp controller so I can get the temp up to the mid-50's pretty quickly.

 

[AndytheBeave]

I subscribed to this thread as I am doing something similar. I am curious to find out how it turns out for the OP and also to provide a little support in kind of "hey I did this too so don't sweat it" way.
The details of my latest batch are as follows:
This beer is a "sort of" pale ale that I whipped up using 2 row pale ale malt and 1.5 lbs of home-toasted 2 row pale ale malt.
OG 1.051 FG 1.012
-primary fermentation for 8 days in a swamp cooler at ~62-64 Deg
-secondary in my corny because it fits in my kegerator and my carboy doesn't
-cold crash in secondary for 14 days: 10 days at 54 Deg F and 4 days at 46 Deg F (to get down to carbination temp).
-start force carbing it at day 18
-tap this puppy on Saturday

I used 2 packets of Nottingham that I rehydrated as per instructions (I always use 2 packets of dry yeast for a 5 gallon batch)
I am still debating on whether I should rack to another keg or not.

 

[pdxal]

Here's information on Nottingham from the manufacturer. Check out the temperature range.
http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/nottingham-ale-beer-yeast

 

[nollie11]

I subscribed to this thread as I am doing something similar. I am curious to find out how it turns out for the OP and also to provide a little support in kind of "hey I did this too so don't sweat it" way.
The details of my latest batch are as follows:
This beer is a "sort of" pale ale that I whipped up using 2 row pale ale malt and 1.5 lbs of home-toasted 2 row pale ale malt.
OG 1.051 FG 1.012
-primary fermentation for 8 days in a swamp cooler at ~62-64 Deg
-secondary in my corny because it fits in my kegerator and my carboy doesn't
-cold crash in secondary for 14 days: 10 days at 54 Deg F and 4 days at 46 Deg F (to get down to carbination temp).
-start force carbing it at day 18
-tap this puppy on Saturday

I used 2 packets of Nottingham that I rehydrated as per instructions (I always use 2 packets of dry yeast for a 5 gallon batch)
I am still debating on whether I should rack to another keg or not.

So you used ale yeast? I ended up using lager yeast because I wanted to brew an India Pale Lager. Seems like we're both following a similar schedule but your initial and final temps are higher (I started mine in primary at 50dF and will end up finishing at 35dF).

 

[AndytheBeave]

So you used ale yeast? I ended up using lager yeast because I wanted to brew an India Pale Lager. Seems like we're both following a similar schedule but your initial and final temps are higher (I started mine in primary at 50dF and will end up finishing at 35dF).

Yeah I used an ale yeast - I wanted to give Nottingham another shot as I usually use S-04 or Windsor. This batch was a bit of an experiment but I am looking forward to the result. The hydrometer sample tasted awesome.
I think that I am leaning towards racking to my other keg since it has the carbonation stone and I won't have to worry about pulling sediment into the first couple of pints. I am expecting a very clear ale though.

 

[AndytheBeave]

I think brewing an IPL is a great idea. There is a company up here in BC called Parellel 49 Brewery and they do an IPL. It's delicious.

 

[AndytheBeave]

Ok so I racked into my second keg last night and started to force carb with my carbonation stone. The beer was crystal clear. To be honest though, racking into the second keg was unnecessary. There really was only a thin layer of sediment on the bottom of my original keg and that would have been dispersed pretty quickly. Like maybe after one pint - which I wasted anyway when racking into the second keg. This is why we experiment though right?

 

[nollie11]

Nice. So you're beginning your force carb at day 18 and will keep it going throughout the rest of your schedule? I was confused about your force carbing but then you also mentioned a carb stone. I've only force carb'ed in corny kegs.

 

[AndytheBeave]

Nice. So you're beginning your force carb at day 18 and will keep it going throughout the rest of your schedule? I was confused about your force carbing but then you also mentioned a carb stone. I've only force carb'ed in corny kegs.

Yeah I force carb for the last few days of the schedule. My carb stone is attached to the inlet port of my corny keg via vinyl hose and it sits right on the bottom of the keg.
I just set the CO2 regulator to serving pressure and within a a couple of days it'll be nicely carbonated.
I'll try a small sample a day or 2 early as I like to see how the taste progresses as the beer sits in the keg.
Obviously it gets better with age but I typically do fairly mild ales so they are usually ready to go at the 21-28 day mark.

 

[nollie11]

So I racked directly to the keg on Sunday and did a diacetyl rest. Will drop it down 2 dF/day until it reaches 35dF and planning to force carb and serve directly from the keg. Will let you know how it turns out.

I took a quick sample with my beer thief and it already tasted mildly carbonated after 10 days of primary fermentation