My first lager

[swatson46n2]

Hello all

I've got about a dozen ale extract kits under my belt and I'm pretty confident in my process so far, however im about to embark on my first lager and I have some questions.

I picked up a Festa Brew Bock kit, which comes with a saflager s23 yeast, this time of year in southern Ontario, my basement workshop is pretty much 14-16 degrees C which I understand is a good temperature for fermentation.

After fermentation, I will transfer to secondary and put into my cold cellar (a little room under my front porch) which fluctuates from about 1-6 degrees C, is that too cold for lagering? I was planning on leaving it in there for about 6 weeks

Does this sound like a good plan?

 

[JimRausch]

Sounds pretty OK with a few suggestions:
Caveat #1- I haven't looked at that Festa Brew kit. I'm assuming it's a 5G batch with a OG of around 1.060ish.
Caveat#2- I haven't used s-23. I have used dry 34/70, as well as 3 different liquid lager yeasts(making starters with those).
So- You should probably pitch 2 packs of the dry yeast. 1 is not really enough for a 1.060 lager. I checked 'Mr. Malty' and that says 2.
14-16C(58-60F) seems a bit high for most lager yeasts, which usually like it down in the 45-50F range. Unless S-23 is different, you may want to use a swamp cooler with some frozen water bottles to get the temp. lower for the 1st 4-5 days. After that, it's a good idea to raise the temp. to the 60-65F range for a couple days for a diacetyl rest. After that point you can leave it anywhere in between until you are ready to rack for lagering.
Lagering at 1-6C is fine. I lager in swamp coolers filled with water out in my cold garage. There is sometimes a couple inches of ice in the tub water, but no ice in the beer. I leave them out there a minimum of 4 weeks, and with my bock, I'll probably go 2-3 months.
Good Luck!

 

[FamilyTradition]

In my experience s-23 is very forgiving I brewed a lager and had it ferment in my basement at 63 then did a D rest. I didn't have any off tastes.

Brewed the same lager and had it ferment at 53 and again found a very clean lager.

I do recommend pitching 2 packs like the post above states. I always like a big starter or two packs for lagers

In my opinion looks like you have a good plan just add a D rest