Oktoberfest Lagering Question

[mcgster]

I am planning on brewing an Oktoberfest AG recipe on Sunday and I have never brewed a lager before and am curious about a few things.

One since I made the recipe up myself I have no specific mash profile to follow and I’m wondering what would be true to style for this beer.

I’m also curious about the lagering process, I’m using the white’s Oktoberfest yeast and plan on beginning the starter tonight. If I ferment at room temp which is around 66 vs lagering it will there be a noticeable difference in the beer. I was trying to keep this as authentic as possible so lagering it was appealing but my keezer is currently full with three corny’s of delicious beer that I don’t want to loose out on (plus I store all my hops in there)

The other option I have for lagering is I have a large aquarium chiller that could easily chill the water bath down to 50 degree’s . It has a precise temp controller built in so I wouldn’t have to worry about that, it would require some tubing to get setup and a pump though. Has anyone lagered like this before, thoughts??

This makes me want to do a lager vs ale expirment with a 10g batch split in 2….

 

[JJL]

You've got a few things going on here.

The mash - if you want to be true to style you'd probably want to do a decoction mash. It's more authentic, but more time consuming. Some people say it makes a difference, some say it doesn't. It would be easier to do a multi-step infusion, with a 10-15 minute rest in the 120'sF and then a 45-75 minute rest in the 150'sF. Or easier yet, a single infusion in the 150'sF. It all depends on how much time you have, your available equuipment, and your comfort level with different mash schedules.

The starter - make your starter at room temp and then chill it to lager temps after 24-36 hours. You are only chilling the starter down to decant some of the liquid and to get it closer to the pitch temp of the wort.

The fermentation - if you want to be authentic, then you need your fermentation temp to be between 40F and 50F. You could probably go as high as 52F, but any higher than that, and you'll likely start introducing more esters that aren't characteristic of a lager.

 

[mcgster]

Hmm well if that is the case I may be able to do it in my keezer. Keeping the beer at 45 wouldn't be the worst thing in the world and would probably be simpler than hooking the chiller up to the swamp cooler. I was curious to watch the fermentation in the cooler though so I may still go that route.

For the mash I may just go with a single infusion if there isn't going to be a huge difference.

Thanks for the input!!

 

[mcgster]

Brew day went well and I just finished the setup for lagerin I just set it up and put a probe in he cooler and one taped to the carboy. Water is being held at 11 while the carboy has dropped to 15

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

When you brew lager you need to do a primary fermentation around 50 deg. F until the fermentation is almost finished, then you need to check for diacetyl. Depending on whether you find diacetyl, you may need to do a diacetyl rest, allowing the beer temperature to rise to ~60 deg. F for a few days until fermentation finishes. Finally you will rack off of the yeast cake and lager (cold age) the beer for several weeks below 40 deg. F.