Warm Fermented Lager Thread

[treacheroustexan]

Hi all, I'm excited to be joining this thread. Decided I wanted to an Oktoberfest for football season but my current setup doesn't allow me to lager. I just pitched Saflager 34/70 into the wort. I'm letting the fermentor sit right on my concrete basement floor so it should ferment around 65 F. Hopefully it turns out!

 

[applescrap]

Welcome to the dark side!

 

[applescrap]

I only have one bag, that's lasted for many many batches. I was tempted to buy another one last weekend. Question: Does using two bags lower your efficiency? I know I could modify my tun (a repurposed 16g blue extract barrel) to get two bags in there, but I'd be concerned about keeping doughballs to a minimum.

I am not sure on efficiency. I dont measure anything, never have, and likely never will. Boy that fires some people up. I have been thinking about measuring though because I'm a little curious and also partigyle. I dump the grain in and stir hard as I can for 10 minutes. Then rest and stir the last ten minutes or so. Then i squeeze the bag aggressively in a collander over a bucket. Doughballs are not much of an issue in full volume brewing. Not much choice here though. Without a winch i cant lift one bag filled with 30 pounds of grain and hold over pot to drain. Actually if kettle was on ground i probably could but not from table height. Either way i really like the multiple bag technique. Ymmv

 

[@RoyalGallon]

Forgive me I’ve not read all 19 pages - and I’m new so cut me some slack...

But my first brew in years in conditioning now it’s a Budweiser clone and - as I used to work for them - I’m just blindly copying their temperature profile which is warmer than you’d normally expect for a lager (I think but maybe not?)

So I chilled the wort down to about 21C and pitched using Mangrove Jack’s Bohemian Lager yeast - which I have no idea how good / bad it is.

I then kept this at 17C for 7 days as the gravity dropped from 1052 down to 1013 - it’s now in what we would have called chips at 13C for two weeks - minus any beechwood.
Next week I intend to crash it down to 0 and fine - this is where it would be centrifuges and filtered so my method diverges from the brewery but I’ll prime and bottle after a couple of days at 0 and see how it looks / tastes.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Now drinking my first lager!

Stole the recipe from MoreBeer (slightly modified) - American Oktoberfest
5.5 gal
OG 1.059
FG 1.016
ABV 5.8%
IBU 24

8.5lb Pils
2lb Light Munich
0.5lb Aromatic
0.5lb CaraVienne
0.5lb CaraMunich
Hallertau for bittering
0.5oz Saaz 15min
0.5oz Saaz 5min

Mashed at 158 60min
Sprinkled S-189, fermented at 65-66
Bottled, carbed to 2.5 vol.

Turned out pretty amazing in my opinion. Definitely among my favorites for this style. Yum!
Cheers!

 

[chewyheel]

So I finally got around to doing my first ever lager, and after perusing this thread and other online info, I decided to go the warm ferment route. Brewed a Vienna lager on Monday afternoon, made a 1.5 liter starter from 2 packs of 34/70 and pitched it Tuesday morning into my 66 degree wort. 8 hours later I had a nice krausen, which started to recede last night. I was able to hold at 66 the entire time.

A question for those with more experience, how long do you ferment until packaging? I'm planning on putting this in a keg and cold crashing and adding gelatin as well. I'm assuming it will benefit from at least a week or two of sitting in the cold before serving. Thanks!

 

[RPh_Guy]

how long do you ferment until packaging?

Until FG is stable.
Though, I bottle so I don't need to worry about diacetyl.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Marking this for later. Might try a warm-lagered rauchbier in the near future. Have 10lbs of beech smoked malt for a Marzen and 5 lbs of pistachio smoked malt, 5 lbs of peanut smoked malt. One maybe smokey Oktoberfest, the other for a Schwarzbier.

Thinking of this since I can't do the traditional lager and I can't get my hands on S-05 at the LHBS. Some fool buys a whole box at a time. So they're always sold out of it.

 

[seatazzz]

A question for those with more experience, how long do you ferment until packaging? I'm planning on putting this in a keg and cold crashing and adding gelatin as well. I'm assuming it will benefit from at least a week or two of sitting in the cold before serving. Thanks!

I usually let mine go in the fermenter for 10 days, then keg, and (if I can restrain myself) let it lager in the keg for a week before tapping. Gotta keep tasting it though! I've got two going right now, one has dry hops and the other not. The 'not' one I am thinking of kegging today (7 days in) because it's essentially done, and the pipeline is dangerously low.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Until FG is stable.
Though, I bottle so I don't need to worry about diacetyl.

So you don't do diacetyl rest?

 

[RPh_Guy]

So you don't do diacetyl rest?

Nope. We're fermenting at temperature where diacetyl is removed.

I fermented at 65/66F. I didn't taste any diacetyl.
Bottle conditioned at 70F.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Nope. We're fermenting at temperature where diacetyl is removed.

I fermented at 65/66F. I didn't taste any diacetyl.
Bottle conditioned at 70F.

You're doing a complete Fritz Maytag steam beer. Using lager yeast like ale yeast. Then bottling or kegging when the fermentation is done. Refrigerating only for serving purposes.

Right?

 

[RPh_Guy]

You're doing a complete Fritz Maytag steam beer. Using lager yeast like ale yeast. Then bottling or kegging when the fermentation is done. Refrigerating only for serving purposes.

Right?

Read through this thread

Cold temperatures are not required for lager yeast profile with certain strains.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/02/08/fe...ager-yeast-saflager-3470-exbeeriment-results/

 

[Schlenkerla]

Read through this thread

Cold temperatures are not required for lager yeast profile with certain strains.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/02/08/fe...ager-yeast-saflager-3470-exbeeriment-results/

Will do...

I've done it before when I was fermenting batches in my walkout basement. It to cold for ale but not cold enough for traditional cold phase for lagering.

I think I used Saflager-23 on Helles and something else. It's been more than 8 years though.

From Northern Brewer, "Widely used by European commercial breweries. Best when fermented at low temperatures, yet can ferment at higher temperatures (61-68° F).

S-23 is a genuine German style dried lager yeast, developing the best of its lager notes under low-temperature fermentation (50-57° F). Good flocculation with excellent attenuation."

 

[ba-brewer]

S-23 seems to produce esters when I use it, warm or cold

 

[Schlenkerla]

S-23 seems to produce esters when I use it, warm or cold

You prefer 34/70?

I need to read this thread to get more background of things people have tried. Sounds interesting though.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Current list:

German strain 34/70, Wy2124, WLP830, OYL114
Swiss strain S-189, WLP885
California Common strain Wy2112, WLP810, M54, L05
Ale strain posing as a lager strain WLP800

-All these are clean up into the low 70s (~22°C) (reports of off-flavors with 34/70 possibly from contamination)
-Ale pitch rate when warm.
-German and possibly Swiss strains tend to require cold crashing for clarity.
-Cali common may produce slight sulfur note typical in some lagers.
-Possible slight ale flavor from WLP800 at warm temperature (clean at 66°F [19°C], see brulosophy).

 

[ba-brewer]

You prefer 34/70?

I need to read this thread to get more background of things people have tried. Sounds interesting though.

34/70 is cleaner than S-23 to me, 2124 I think is better than 34/70 (cleaner clears faster)
I like 2112 too if you want more malt or higher FG, I get a pretty consistent 75%. Not quite as clean as 2124 but clears faster.

Just used S-189 on a couple beers two cold fermented and one warm, needs more time to see how they turns out, seems to give some esters.

 

[seatazzz]

Made an executive decision yesterday to leave my S-23 lager alone for at least another week, a taste of it revealed some acetaldehyde that will need to go away. But I DID keg the IPL that was brewed at the same time, on 2nd generation 34/70. Came down to 1.012 from 1.062 in 7 days, so a nice 6.5% lager. Tasting carbing sample now, it's got a great nose and flavor from the Mosaic (a LOT) hops, and a nice depth that is missing from the Smash House IPA I usually do with Mosaic hops. Once it's carbed up will go quick in this hophead's house.

 

[Dimax]

Started a Munich Hellas this weekend:
BIAB
5 Gal Batch size
OG: 1.048 Actual 1.058 not sure if this was because I ended up steeping the grains
90 mins
FG: 1.011 Actual
IBU: 18
Color: 4 SRM
5.0% ABV Actual
Mash: 150 degrees 60 min Actual 90 min, wort dropped to 146 degrees.
Boil: 60 min Actual 90 min
Pre-Boil Vol: 7 gal could have used 8 gallons I had a very hard boil going & needed to add at end of boil.
Pre-Boil grav: 1.041 Actual unknown as I don't measure

All Grain:
10 lbs. Pilsener
0.75 lb. Munich

Hops:
Hallertau 4.0% Actual 3.6%

Yeast:
W-34/70 Should have checked the exp date sheez 7/2018, but Tossed the yeast in dry @ 3:45 PM , checked it at 0830 and the yeast was working away.

Fermenting at 65 degrees.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

it’s a Budweiser clone and - as I used to work for them - I’m just blindly copying their temperature profile which is warmer than you’d normally expect for a lager (I think but maybe not?)

So I chilled the wort down to about 21C and pitched using Mangrove Jack’s Bohemian Lager yeast - which I have no idea how good / bad it is.

I then kept this at 17C for 7 days as the gravity dropped from 1052 down to 1013 - it’s now in what we would have called chips at 13C for two weeks - minus any beechwood.

Surprised noone has commented on this. Yes if 17C is what Bud uses then yes that's 7+C warmer than the Germans would ferment at, and very much in line with what people are doing here, and conditioning at cellar temp is even warmer relative to usual lagering temperature.

I can see why you chose M84. It will be interesting to see how you get on with it, because I don't think anyone's tried it to date. However, there's a good chance that it's a Saaz-type lager yeast, which are the cleaner, more cold-adapted group, so it may not be as happy as one of the more warm-adapted Frohberg group. As you may have seen, MJ M54 Californian Lager seems to be the current favourite for warm lager.

However, if you're open to using liquid yeast then you might like to try WLP840 American Lager (supposedly from Budweiser) and WLP862 Cry Havoc, a lager yeast promoted by Charlie Papazian (doyen of US homebrewing) as an all-purpose yeast that can be fermented at 13-23C. Originally it was isolated from a Budweiser keg, and ended up in the Coors yeast bank.

It's worth noting that homebrew yeast are sold as single strains, whereas a commercial brewery will often have several strains in their house yeast, so you'll never quite match them unless you harvest directly. In the Gallone sequencing paper there was an intriguing pair of (codenamed) single strains in the saison family that were closely related and both used commercially for making lager - one in the US and one Czech. I wonder which two breweries in those countries might be using highly related yeast that look like they diverged in the mid-20th century?

PS Given the North American bias of HBT, you might want to clarify in your profile that you're not from the Canadian Windsor.

 

[@RoyalGallon]

Surprised noone has commented on this. Yes if 17C is what Bud uses then yes that's 7+C warmer than the Germans would ferment at, and very much in line with what people are doing here, and conditioning at cellar temp is even warmer relative to usual lagering temperature.

...

Thanks - I was wondering if I'd committed a terrible faux pas without realising!

To be fair I picked the M84 yeast up in the homebrew shop as the only one I could find labelled as a lager yeast. I'll be fining this weekend so will be able to get a taste then and see how it's coped with the warmer than expected temperatures.

I tasted when I transferred from primary to secondary (Something reading on here I think I'll knock on the head now) and my other half who used to run the sensory panel at the Bud brewery - said she could pick up cherry / marzipan / almond taints. It tasted of yeast to me! Not sure if this was estery / fruity from the warm fermentation. Looking up that flavour it's often picked out as Benzaldehyde and put down to oxidation during storage - not something you'd expect after a week in primary. So we'll see.

I am keen to try liquid yeasts and if I give this another go - which I will. this is my proof of competence exercise. If I can make something with very little flavour any flavours in my other beers are there by design - I'd be keen to use one of the yeasts you mention.

The story I heard while working for AB is that they took the yeast with them when they emigrated to the States and started brewing there so US / Czech strains being so close is intriguing - also that they are Saison makes me think this warmer fermentation temp they use is a copy of what they did in the old country maybe?

(I've added UK to my profile so as not to deceive any friendly Canadians)

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Ooh, a trained lager taster, that could be useful.... Miraculix, you need to get to the other end of the county! Oxidation is always a problem at homebrew scale, but equally you could just be picking up a yeast under stress - particularly if it's a Saaz type.

It's worth emphasising that these saison types are probably only part of a blend of yeast, and we don't know what the unnamed US and Czech breweries are. But it's worth noting that Urquell used to brew separately with 5 strains during the Cold War, and one of them may have given rise to WLP800 Pilsner, which is actually an ale strain related to the kolsch and hefe yeasts. That still gives 4 strains that could be "proper" lager strains. Now Urquell only use the H-strain, which is meant to have given rise to Wyeast 2001; a derivative of the D-strain is also available as Wyeast 2278.

If you're ever going down the M4, Malt Miller in Swindon (and Brewstore in Edinburgh) seem to have the best relationships with White Labs in terms of proactively getting any new strains, BrewUK in Salisbury seem a bit less proactive with respect to White Labs but have Wyeast and Omega among others and are fairly good about being able to get stuff on request. You might want to try Mangrove Jack M54 Californian in the first instance though.

 

[zonkman]

Such a pleasure to read this thread [not all of it yet!]. Thank you all.

It seems that the different strains' properties at 65-70 is generally deemed either to have an off flavor, or not. Forgive me if I missed the page, but are their significant flavor differences - other than clean/less clean, off/less off - with the various strains in the warmer temp range?

I've added a warm lager yeast Kiss Yer Cousin Kentucky Common to my brew list. I'll try find the M54. Unlikely though. Should I just go with one of the California Lager strains? Any other considerations?

 

[applescrap]

You're doing a complete Fritz Maytag steam beer. Using lager yeast like ale yeast. Then bottling or kegging when the fermentation is done. Refrigerating only for serving purposes.

Right?

Yes, essentially. Also refrigerating for aging, conditioning. Suppose its your choice, need, etc.

 

[applescrap]

Started a Munich Hellas this weekend:
BIAB
5 Gal Batch size
OG: 1.048 Actual 1.058 not sure if this was because I ended up steeping the grains
90 mins
FG: 1.011 Actual
IBU: 18
Color: 4 SRM
5.0% ABV Actual
Mash: 150 degrees 60 min Actual 90 min, wort dropped to 146 degrees.
Boil: 60 min Actual 90 min
Pre-Boil Vol: 7 gal could have used 8 gallons I had a very hard boil going & needed to add at end of boil.
Pre-Boil grav: 1.041 Actual unknown as I don't measure

All Grain:
10 lbs. Pilsener
0.75 lb. Munich

Hops:
Hallertau 4.0% Actual 3.6%

Yeast:
W-34/70 Should have checked the exp date sheez 7/2018, but Tossed the yeast in dry @ 3:45 PM , checked it at 0830 and the yeast was working away.

Fermenting at 65 degrees.

Thats a good recipe.

 

[@RoyalGallon]

If you're ever going down the M4, Malt Miller in Swindon (and Brewstore in Edinburgh) seem to have the best relationships with White Labs in terms of proactively getting any new strains, BrewUK in Salisbury seem a bit less proactive with respect to White Labs but have Wyeast and Omega among others and are fairly good about being able to get stuff on request. You might want to try Mangrove Jack M54 Californian in the first instance though.

I've looked at the Malt Miller's website a lot recently & my mate has paid them a visit. Used them for malt unsurprisingly, i think being able to buy the exact amount of milled malt you need is a great idea. Will have to look at the yeast offerings.

With respect to the yeast types I think V002 of this I'll use the M54 - not try and change too much in one go. You obviously have a lot of historical knowledge of the origins etc - you may have been asked before or it's in another thread but is there a 'family tree' type diagram available anywhere - if not you should do one

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Such a pleasure to read this thread [not all of it yet!]. Thank you all.

It seems that the different strains' properties at 65-70 is generally deemed either to have an off flavor, or not. Forgive me if I missed the page, but are their significant flavor differences - other than clean/less clean, off/less off - with the various strains in the warmer temp range?

I've added a warm lager yeast Kiss Yer Cousin Kentucky Common to my brew list. I'll try find the M54. Unlikely though. Should I just go with one of the California Lager strains?

Others haven't been tested, but the working assumption is that any Californian lager strain will do. Not least because "Californian lager" is so tightly associated with one specific brewery, so the homebrew strains are likely to all come from Anchor, it's not like specifying "British ale yeast" which could come from lots of different breweries. WLP800 is the other option.

It's worth emphasising that this is early days for this stuff, so there may well be "better" strains out there, and there's not been much side-by-side comparison of different strains.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I've looked at the Malt Miller's website a lot recently & my mate has paid them a visit. Used them for malt unsurprisingly, i think being able to buy the exact amount of milled malt you need is a great idea. Will have to look at the yeast offerings.

With respect to the yeast types I think V002 of this I'll use the M54 - not try and change too much in one go. You obviously have a lot of historical knowledge of the origins etc - you may have been asked before or it's in another thread but is there a 'family tree' type diagram available anywhere - if not you should do one

Brewstore and TMM both have White Labs and Yeast Bay (the former even have the elusive Voss kveik in stock), TMM also does Imperial (which doesn't make a huge amount of sense given UK pricing and there's only a couple of different strains, the only advantage is the higher cell count). So BrewUK is better on that front - I tend to spread my orders around a bit depending on what the weirdest thing in my order is! Some have one thing, another shop will have something else obscure.

It's pretty much impossible to work out yeast relationships based on what brewers say - it's unusual that strains can be tracked back through history even a few decades although there are exceptions - we even know the exact train that John Smith's sent their yeast to Harvey's on! But in the last couple of years the cost of genome sequencing has dropped dramatically so there's been two big efforts to assemble a yeast family tree from DNA relationships; Suregork of this parish has thrown them at a supercomputer to create one mega-family tree of yeast - see http://beer.suregork.com/ but I suggest you start at the 30 December post which only has beer strains so is a bit more manageable.

Lager is a fairly minor part of the story, commercially a lot of breweries use 34/70, so in general there's less diversity there than among other parts of the tree.

 

[Beer666]

Interesting reading. --I am fermenting a rice lager at the top of recommended temps at 15c with MJ Bavarian yeast. Once its finished i will try again at 20c. Took a while to get going with 2 packs. 28l at 1048 so would use at least one more next time. Another SMASH on with the Bohemian so will be trying that at 20c as well.
I also have just got a pack of Imperial yeast dieter which is a kolsch yeast but is very low on esters and has high attenuation. Will be doing that soon so i can do a comparison.

 

[wobdee]

Forgive me I’ve not read all 19 pages - and I’m new so cut me some slack...

But my first brew in years in conditioning now it’s a Budweiser clone and - as I used to work for them - I’m just blindly copying their temperature profile which is warmer than you’d normally expect for a lager (I think but maybe not?)

So I chilled the wort down to about 21C and pitched using Mangrove Jack’s Bohemian Lager yeast - which I have no idea how good / bad it is.

I then kept this at 17C for 7 days as the gravity dropped from 1052 down to 1013 - it’s now in what we would have called chips at 13C for two weeks - minus any beechwood.
Next week I intend to crash it down to 0 and fine - this is where it would be centrifuges and filtered so my method diverges from the brewery but I’ll prime and bottle after a couple of days at 0 and see how it looks / tastes.

This is interesting. Im sure other big breweries ferment somewhat warm for their Lagers but i also think they can get away with it because of the natural pressures in their HUGE fermenters which will help supress esters. There are some threads around about pressure fermentation that may be an interesting read.

 

[MakeDankBeer]

Well couldn't stay away for long, brewed another one this weekend,
3 gal
1.050 og
2 lb 2-row
2lb 6-row
1lb of flaked corn
1lb of flaked rice
.25 oz willamette fwh
.25 oz willamette @15min
2 pinches of irish moss @15 min

pitched 3 packets of WLP840(forgot to make a starter)
aerated for 60sec of pure oxygen
pitched at 50°f

think ill just let this free rise up into the mid 60s for couple days then let it get up into the 70s for a week, then try and "chill" it for two-three weeks. FIN with gelatin keg and drink after week or two.

Finished, taste pretty good, could use a little more bitterness. No off flavors to my un-trained palate. Ended up dry hopping it with some wet comet I grew. I pretty much followed the plan from above although I think I waited longer to transfer to keg. It still did not come out as clear as I wanted but oh well.

 

[@RoyalGallon]

This is interesting. Im sure other big breweries ferment somewhat warm for their Lagers but i also think they can get away with it because of the natural pressures in their HUGE fermenters which will help supress esters. There are some threads around about pressure fermentation that may be an interesting read.

Interesting - of course the hydrostatic pressure is going to have an effect - I’d never considered that.
The FVs at Mortlake we’re up to 3100hL and six floors high. That’s a lot of pressure on the yeast cell in the cone!

 

[Tulsahomebrewer]

Wow, this is an awesome thread! But I am super confused after reading 19 pages of it, so please tell me if this works:

- Started “warm” fermenting a pilsner in a 6.5 Gallon plastic bucket on 8th Sep. Used Dry yeast. Bucket shows 70-72F on the outside. Bucket is in a bath tub full of water and rotating ice packs twice a day, water temp around 66-68F.
- It has been bubbling like crazy and today I see some bubbles twice a minute. I am at 5 day Mark. I assume I let ferment for 2-4 more days, correct?
- Then, shall I take bucket out of tub and place at room temp of about 76-78F for 2 days to D-rest?
- Then Siphon our to pouring bucket, prime it and bottle it.
- Then keep bottles in dark warm closet for 2 weeks? Temp about 76-78F.
- Then move bottles into fridge for 2 weeks at 34-36F?
- Test one to make sure it is well carbonated and clear-ish? If not let it sit another week or two.

Did I get it kinda right? I don’t want to use secondary but want to use gelatin, can I add it during d-rest?

Thanks.
I am super stoked to have found this thread!! Saved me some money on a wine cooler for cold fermenting.

 

[Miraculix]

Wow, this is an awesome thread! But I am super confused after reading 19 pages of it, so please tell me if this works:

- Started “warm” fermenting a pilsner in a 6.5 Gallon plastic bucket on 8th Sep. Used Dry yeast. Bucket shows 70-72F on the outside. Bucket is in a bath tub full of water and rotating ice packs twice a day, water temp around 66-68F.
- It has been bubbling like crazy and today I see some bubbles twice a minute. I am at 5 day Mark. I assume I let ferment for 2-4 more days, correct?
- Then, shall I take bucket out of tub and place at room temp of about 76-78F for 2 days to D-rest?
- Then Siphon our to pouring bucket, prime it and bottle it.
- Then keep bottles in dark warm closet for 2 weeks? Temp about 76-78F.
- Then move bottles into fridge for 2 weeks at 34-36F?
- Test one to make sure it is well carbonated and clear-ish? If not let it sit another week or two.

Did I get it kinda right? I don’t want to use secondary but want to use gelatin, can I add it during d-rest?

Thanks.
I am super stoked to have found this thread!! Saved me some money on a wine cooler for cold fermenting.

You can do it your way, this will result in nice beer.
However, I pitch yeast at room temp, let it ferment at room temp, let the yeast settle out, bottle and let the bottles stand at room temp till they are carbed, then I begin drinking it.

Thekey is using a yeast that works at warmer temperatures, like those California lager strains.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Wow, this is an awesome thread! But I am super confused after reading 19 pages of it, so please tell me if this works:

- Started “warm” fermenting a pilsner in a 6.5 Gallon plastic bucket on 8th Sep. Used Dry yeast. Bucket shows 70-72F on the outside. Bucket is in a bath tub full of water and rotating ice packs twice a day, water temp around 66-68F.
- It has been bubbling like crazy and today I see some bubbles twice a minute. I am at 5 day Mark. I assume I let ferment for 2-4 more days, correct?
- Then, shall I take bucket out of tub and place at room temp of about 76-78F for 2 days to D-rest?
- Then Siphon our to pouring bucket, prime it and bottle it.
- Then keep bottles in dark warm closet for 2 weeks? Temp about 76-78F.
- Then move bottles into fridge for 2 weeks at 34-36F?
- Test one to make sure it is well carbonated and clear-ish? If not let it sit another week or two.

Did I get it kinda right? I don’t want to use secondary but want to use gelatin, can I add it during d-rest?

Thanks.
I am super stoked to have found this thread!! Saved me some money on a wine cooler for cold fermenting.

Diacetyl rest is totally unnecessary.

Gelatin definitely works best at cold temperature.
I used gelatin for the first time in my Oktoberfest and I'm not happy with it. It has chill haze. Not sure why.

Check carbonation level before moving bottles to the fridge.

 

[Sbe2]

So I went to the LHBS today planning on making a Kölsch with wlp029, but they were sold out. I went back to this thread while at the store and I immediately looked to see if they had wlp800 and they did. It is my first time using wlp800 so I will see how it goes at 65f!

 

[Genuine]

Soooooo.....I couldn’t wait any longer. Just tapped my Oktoberfest! Very nice, malty and crisp! 5.7% ABV! Can’t wait to see how it improves with age!

 

[Tulsahomebrewer]

Hydrometer is showing 4.5% after 7 days of warm fermenting Pilsner at 68-70F. Is that normal, or do I need to ferment it for few more days? I expected it to be around 5.5%-6%. Airlock was pretty calm, maybe bubbling once every 50 seconds. Tasted flat obviously as it isn’t carbonated yet, but I expected some more hoppy taste.

I have taken fermenting bucket out of cool water, so it is at room temperature now if about 76F.

Maybe I am panicking for no reason!!!! I don’t want my first brew to be spoilt or worse taste like Coors Light!!!!

 

[divrack]

Just to report.. first warm fermented lager so far not a huge success. Simple recipe fermented at about 16c ambient using 34/70. Had a couple weeks cold conditioning now and still tastes like sulphur bum...
Was hoping for a quick turnaround beer for a friend's wedding last week but had to take a different beer.