1st Lager Effort, Criticism Appreciated.

[cosmatics]

Hey HBT, decided to tackle my 1st lager! I scored a cheap refrig off CL for $40 ($60 in van rental though, lol) so I decided it was LAGER TIME. After reading this site and others for at least 40 hours, this is what I went with. From a recipe by user osagedr (all credit to him): I used Wyeast 2308 munich lager yeast.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 2308 [original recipe used W-34/70 (washed)]
Yeast Starter: 4 step stir plate starter, chilled, decanted, pitched
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.013
IBU: 44.6
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 4.7
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 @ 45
Additional Fermentation: lager @ 33 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 @ 68
Tasting Notes: dry, clean finish, slight grainy taste, good bitterness

9.5# Weyerman pilsner
1.25 # cara-pils
0.5# crystal 15

1 oz Tettnang 90 mins
1 oz Tettnang 45 mins
1 oz Tettnang 15 mins
1 oz Tettnag 6 mins

45 mins @ 146
45 mins @ 158
15 mins @170

Here is what I did, ended up boiling for 100 minutes due to a late water addition to hit target volume, so I gave a longer boil to sanitize. Chilled to 65*, pitched stir plate starter that I estimated at 100bil => 200bil => 350 bil => 500bil. Put in refrigerator set at 40* to facilitate chilling, next morning I came down and it was bubbling about 1 bubble every 5 seconds. I left it there, and next morning checked it and I think it was to cold to about 39*, whoopsie, stopped bubbling. I then realized I should ferment at 48-55 so I raised temp over next 8 hours to 50* and it returned bubbling away.

I check 1st reading 2 days later, it was at 40pts, and tasted great, def. stank of sulfur, but all and all nice. I left it at 50* and now 5 days later, it was at 20pts. It also tasted great with no noticeable off flavors. I decided to give it D-rest, so its been at 68* for the past 2 days. I did a hydro this morning, and its at 14 pts. I'm going to let it D-rest for one more day, and then rack and begin the lagering?

Or should I not rack it, and begin lagering?

I plan to lager for 4 weeks, then bottle. Any thoughts?

 

[wickman6]

I would rack to secondary, then lager.

I prefer to pitch at closer to my fermentation temp, but many people pitch 'warm' as you have without any problems.

Also, it seems the temp fluctuated a bit on you. I'm sure you probably know that's not exactly ideal, but hey I've had bigger problems than that and still made some pretty nice beer!

Nice fridge score btw!

 

[JRems]

I would leave it at d rest temp for at least a few days it won't hurt anything and you will be sure it's done fermenting. Then lager it for a week or so to drop most of the yeast then transfer and lager for the rest of your planned time. You could lager it the entire time on the yeast, that's generally what I would do, but it's up to you and your practices.

 

[cosmatics]

Thanks for the input, yeah next time I hope to have a tighter control on temps, and I would like to have pitched at around 50*, but was going out that night and my friend was waiting for me, next time beer first! Yeah I'm thinking maybe just let this one sit on primary and lager for a few weeks, in the future I will be more patient but until I get the pipeline going, I'll be less patient.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Next time, I'd suggest sticking your 65f wort in the fridge set to ice cold, for about 5-8 hours or whatever it takes to get down to 50f quickly. THEN pitch the yeast. Then set the thermostat to 50f. Yeast don't like temps dropping.