New Brewer First ocktoberfest

[BryceL]

Dude! I finally did the kit with the Wyeast smack pack that was questionable (made a starter to be safe though) and it took 3 days to get bubbling well and develop Krauzen. But its bubblings like crazy now (about as good as my cider) Is this normal for doing lagers? My ferm temp is 50-52? Sound about right?

Also I see huge chunks (using 6.5 glass carboy for primary) thats just strong yeast clumping together right? my cider is doing the same thing.

Good to hear! My oktoberfest was similar, took a bit to get going but then went hard and stedy for 2 weeks. Chunks are fine, just yeast.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

sweet. so when should I do a gravity test? or just wait the full two weeks?

i heard once wait till it bubbles every 90 seconds

 

[BryceL]

Two weeks is probably about right, but if you notice a significant slowing of your fermentation you could go ahead and check it at that point. Then like I mentioned before if your fermentation is about 75% complete based on the gravity, you can go ahead with your D-rest. It's just pointless to check the gravity if fermentation is still going hard.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

And doing a D rest you let the beer warm up to room temp? or is there a specific temp?

 

[BryceL]

Not quite room temp, usually in the 65-68 range.

 

[osagedr]

Room temp won't hurt anything IMO. I do all of my d-rests there.

 

[jigidyjim]

As a rule of thumb, I hear it's best not to make starters for the smack packs either...

Where did you hear that?

+1. A smack pack won't give you enough yeast, especially for a lager... not sure where you heard smack packs don't need starters...

Also, theres a lot of talk in this thread about the starter being temperature controlled. I've never heard of that before. It's ok if the starter tastes like crap because it ferments at a weird temperature. You're either going to decant it, or it's going to be small compared to the actual volume of wort anyway.

But then again, my ambient temps are pretty constant around 70-75. If I lived somewhere where my house got to 100 degrees, maybe I'd think differently.

 

[AWKBrewing13]

If you House got to 100 degrees Id hope you get air conditioning lol

I did the starter and the yeast is going crazy right now so im sure im safe. As far as temp I have a fridge dedicated to the lagering process so I just stuck the yeast in there. So the temp was all consistent.

The only thing now is to know when to do the D rest
As far as Amb Temp... Ill take it to my basement (66 degrees) D rest for a day or two. Rack it. Then hit it in the fridge for the lagering process at 38 degrees?

Does that all sound right?

 

[ENS]

if you're not set up to lager or not comfortable with lagering yet. You can brew the BB Oktobefest as an ale and it comes out pretty good, tastes very close to an Oktoberfest. This was the first kit I brewed. It fermented at around 64*. I left it in the primary for two weeks and then secondary for two weeks. I was very happy with it. It took about 3 weeks in the bottle to develop the flavors though.

 

[BryceL]

If you House got to 100 degrees Id hope you get air conditioning lol

I did the starter and the yeast is going crazy right now so im sure im safe. As far as temp I have a fridge dedicated to the lagering process so I just stuck the yeast in there. So the temp was all consistent.

The only thing now is to know when to do the D rest
As far as Amb Temp... Ill take it to my basement (66 degrees) D rest for a day or two. Rack it. Then hit it in the fridge for the lagering process at 38 degrees?

Does that all sound right?

Your plan looks good, that should work just fine!

 

[AWKBrewing13]

You guys rock! Happy Drinking.