Question about my first lager

[WildGingerBrewing]

I'm making my first lager this weekend, a Classic Pilsner with a White Labs WLP-800 starter. I plan to ferment at 52F-55F for a week or so. Is a diacetyl rest always required with a lager and if so how exactly do I do it? And, if so, once it's complete what do I do?

 

[JollyToper]

Not always especially if you start cool enough. If you have temperature control to get you down to 46 or even 50 for the first 18 hours you won't need one.

If you want to do one you raise the temp. I'm doing this from iPhone away from my brewing bookshelf but from memory I think you would increase to 60* F for a couple of days close to the end of active fermentation. I do more ales than lagers. Use your hydrometer to see when you are within a few points of finished but if you wanted to be lazy like me you could just do it between day 10 and 14.

Found a link to Palmer...

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-4.html

 

[SwampassJ]

I was wondering the same thing. I pitched last Sunday (big freaking starter, had about 30% more than Mr. Malty called for) at 42degrees and slowly climbed to 46 and it's been going realy good. I'm planning to pull a sample today.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Not always especially if you start cool enough. If you have temperature control to get you down to 46 or even 50 for the first 18 hours you won't need one.

If you want to do one you raise the temp. I'm doing this from iPhone away from my brewing bookshelf but from memory I think you would increase to 60* F for a couple of days close to the end of active fermentation. I do more ales than lagers. Use your hydrometer to see when you are within a few points of finished but if you wanted to be lazy like me you could just do it between day 10 and 14.

Found a link to Palmer...

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-4.html

Great info. Thanks! So since I cannot lower the temp of the wort quickly enough to get to 48-50 degrees before pitching, I am going to pitch at a normal temp. I have my fridge set at 40F so once I pitch I will put it in and let it lower on its on. If I can get it down quickly enough, I should not have to do a rest. But if the temp doesn't drop quickly enough then in 4-5 days I will need to raise the temp to 60F or so for a couple of days and then drop it back down for another couple of weeks. Does this sound about right?

 

[JollyToper]

A couple of thoughts...

I regularly let my wort cool overnight in the fridge to get down to the pitching temp I want before pitching yeast. It hasn't caused any problems and it renders the diacetyl rest a mute point.

Second I would let the yeast go longer than five days before ramping to 60*. Several lagers I've done take a good 10 days to flocculate so I leave them alone.

Hope that helps! Good luck.

 

[Bulls Beers]

What I do is ferment at 50-52 degrees. I usually ferment for about 2 weeks. I let it come up to room temp for the diacetyl rest for 2 days. Then I rack to a keg and slowly drop the temp about 3 degrees a day until I get to 32. I let it lager for as long as I can. Maybe about 4-6 weeks. Lately I've been doing 10 gallon batches, so one keg lagers for 4-6 weeks and the second keg gets at least 8 weeks. When It's done, it comes out so crisp and clean. I love my lagers....

 

[theredben]

If you are uncertain if a d-rest is necessary it is better to do one. After it is bottled/kegged you can't go back. When fermentation is almost done (at least 75% fermented) you can either raise the temp of the fermenting chamber, or just take the carboys into regular room temp for a few days.

All you are trying to do is get the yeast awake to finish off their work. Nothing terribly complicated.

 

[SamBrewer]

If you are uncertain if a d-rest is necessary it is better to do one. After it is bottled/kegged you can't go back. When fermentation is almost done (at least 75% fermented) you can either raise the temp of the fermenting chamber, or just take the carboys into regular room temp for a few days.

All you are trying to do is get the yeast awake to finish off their work. Nothing terribly complicated.

yes, that's correct but I found that if the diacetyl is very low, after 2 or 3 weeks in bottle the beer is just fine

 

[uabericm]

I was wondering the same thing. I pitched last Sunday (big freaking starter, had about 30% more than Mr. Malty called for) at 42degrees and slowly climbed to 46 and it's been going realy good. I'm planning to pull a sample today.

How did it turn out?

 

[SwampassJ]

How did it turn out?

As of Saturday (6 days in) it down to 1.030 and had a very tart taste like my Kolsch starter did. Going to give it another day or two and raise the temp because it's too hard to taste anything beyond the yeast.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Update since my OP. Brew day had a few issues (mostly due to too many beers) but overall turned out well. I pitched the yeast starter at about 74F and put it into the ferment fridge. When I left for work this morning at 6:00, it was down to 42F. I will leave it there for 10 or so days then bring it up to 60F for 2 days. Then once the rest is complete I intend to slowly (5 deg or so per day) drop it back down as low as I can get it and leave it for another 2-4 weeks. I think this beer is going to be great!