Another Lager Help Request

Hello everyone, I have been lurking on this forum for a while, it always pops up as one of the first source of answers when I google questions. I have been brewing on and off for about 8 years (including a 3 years break where I was moving a lot). Since my hiatus I made 1 lager which came out terribly (I think my plastic fermenters may have gotten old and the water where I was living was very hard).

So this year I plan on getting serious about brewing. I have a black imperial IPA (wasn't supposed to be black, accidentally got chocolate wheat) and regular IPA going, just in the last month. So to slow myself down I plan on starting a lager this weekend.

TLR; making a lager next and have some questions (Munich Helles to be exact).

I may be being a bit overzealous, but I will also be making this my first all-grain. Planning on just an infusion mash, not sure if I am ready for decoction.

My questions are thus:
1. If I buy a vial of White Labs WLP830 Thursday night and begin a starter then in a 2L flask with Wyeast yeast fuel, will I have a good amount of yeast by Saturday morning?
2. Is it a crazy idea to buy two vials of different yeasts and combine them? IE WLP830 and WLP800?

Thank you in advance, I am sorry for being such a novice.

I've been brewing AG for 3 or 4 years, and I do a few lagers each year, so I'm no expert, but I can give you some advice.

1: a 2 L starter is probably a little small for a lager, but you can double check mrmalty.com's yeast calculator to be sure. I'm guessing doing 2 L, cold crashing and decanting, than adding another 2 L to the yeast will get you much closer to the ballpark. But again, check mrmalty.com to be sure.

2: Not crazy, but what would be better is to buy two vials of the same yeast and make a starter with both of them...it'll make it much easier to get to the final cell count you're looking for.

There are other options (which I, as a pretty lazy brewer, might be more likely to choose), but those are probably the best ways to go about doing it. Good luck!

There's a great article in this month's Zymurgy on mixing yeasts, and their attitude was go for it!

Cyclman said:

There's a great article in this month's Zymurgy on mixing yeasts, and their attitude was go for it!

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Hmmmm, well alright then. This should be interesting. First lager in a year, first time with all grain, first yeast starter, and first yeast mixing attempt!

BigFloyd said:

Since you're in Houston, how are you controlling your ferment temps for a lager?

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Not sure why my earlier response did not show up, let's see if this one works.

I have a chest freezer and a temperature controller. I try to brew all of my batches in here to minimize any temperature shocking or cycles. Even for an ale I don't want to let it cycle too much, and I'm not going to keep my apartment at 72F while I'm at work during the day.

Sorry to kick this thread up again, but I didn't want to start a new thread for another question I have:

The beer has been in primary for 12 days now. Started raising the temperature up to 65F two days ago and plan on transferring to secondary tomorrow. I noticed when I first started raising the temperature that the beer looked pretty hazy (can't look through it sideways because it is in the fridge and I don't want to disturb the sediment).

Notes:
1. I had nice krausen within 24 hours of closing the carboy.
2. Air lock bubbling slowed on day 5
3. Checked the fridge about once every other day
4. Fermented at 45F
5. I did not do a gravity reading prior to raising the temperature (this is a step I need to start doing, using the gravity instead of a timeline)

So... any help on why it is still cloudy? I plan on doing a 5 week secondary at 40F (with a little bit of dry hopping), maybe that will help clear it up? Or maybe secondary should be done a little lower?

I have a question I have been lagering for eight weeks and getting ready to bottle it I understand I need to add yeast when bottling but should I condition it at same temp as lagering or room temp?

see post above

Gometz I wouldn't worry about the cloudy at this point at all. I'd continue on into the secondary as planned. I never get to hydrometer my lagers due to my two week on two week off schedule, the way it works out for me my wife usually starts easing the temp controller up for me while I'm gone. So timing is kind of all I go off. Bit of a gamble I suppose but it works just fine.
Only thing I might do different, since you can, is after about three weeks at 40 degrees in the secondary, maybe think about dropping the temp down to mid to low thirties. Lager there as long as you can, should help really clean this brew up.
Cheers

manhattanksbrewer said:

I have a question I have been lagering for eight weeks and getting ready to bottle it I understand I need to add yeast when bottling but should I condition it at same temp as lagering or room temp?

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You don't need to add yeast, but you can if you want to. If you choose to add a little, I'd add 1/3 package or so of a clean dry ale yeast to the (cooled) priming solution in the bottling bucket and stir that up and then rack the beer into it.

I would bottle condition at room temperature, as it's quicker and there wouldn't be any flavor impact from doing that.

worksnorth said:

Gometz I wouldn't worry about the cloudy at this point at all. I'd continue on into the secondary as planned. I never get to hydrometer my lagers due to my two week on two week off schedule, the way it works out for me my wife usually starts easing the temp controller up for me while I'm gone. So timing is kind of all I go off. Bit of a gamble I suppose but it works just fine.
Only thing I might do different, since you can, is after about three weeks at 40 degrees in the secondary, maybe think about dropping the temp down to mid to low thirties. Lager there as long as you can, should help really clean this brew up.
Cheers

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Thanks worksnorth. I transferred on Friday and got the temperature down to 40F over about 24 hours. I looked into the fridge last night and from what I can see (since I am looking from above it and not from the side) it is clearing up already. Going to leave it around 38F for the first few weeks before dropping it to 35F (or a little less, doubt I can be that accurate).

Thanks for all the help!