I got a book for Christmas, Brewing Classic Styles, and when I got to the section about Oktoberfests, I was highly intrigued. So I'll be making my first lager, and I want to check my info on the process to mak sure I got this right. I am essentially copying the recipe in the book so I'm not really looking for guidance on that.
I'll be brewing on Sunday, so being Friday, I got the first step of my starter going. I'll step it up again tomorrow to make sure I have enough yeast.
After the boil, rack down to the fermenter below 60F. My basement is around 56 right now and I'll put my carboy in a tub of water as a swamp cooler, that should keep my fermentation around 50-52. When fermentation is done, start removing some of the water each day to slowly raise temperature back up to ambient and open a heating vent to get a few more degrees if I need to. This should keep the yeast roused enough to clean up, no?
When that is done, rack over to secondary and into the fridge for a good two month long lagering. A couple questions on this front, first, will an extended lagering hurt it, meaning, it won't hurt the beer if if I keep it in there longer than 6-8 weeks will it? Second, I've searched quite a bit on whether people lager in a corny and there doesn't seem to be much info. I couldn't imagine why it would be a problem, but it should be ok, yeah? Just looking for confirmation on this one.
After this, is there anything else I need to do or am I basically done? Basement stays around 62-65 in the summertime, will this be alright for lager storage or does that need to be cold as well?
Anything else I should consider? I haven't been this excited about brewing a new style in quite a long time so Ill be really disappointed if this doesn't turn out well. I don't like putting that kind of pressure on myself so I want to cover as many bases as I can before I launch this bad boy.
Thanks for any help I can get on this.
I'll be brewing on Sunday, so being Friday, I got the first step of my starter going. I'll step it up again tomorrow to make sure I have enough yeast.
After the boil, rack down to the fermenter below 60F. My basement is around 56 right now and I'll put my carboy in a tub of water as a swamp cooler, that should keep my fermentation around 50-52. When fermentation is done, start removing some of the water each day to slowly raise temperature back up to ambient and open a heating vent to get a few more degrees if I need to. This should keep the yeast roused enough to clean up, no?
When that is done, rack over to secondary and into the fridge for a good two month long lagering. A couple questions on this front, first, will an extended lagering hurt it, meaning, it won't hurt the beer if if I keep it in there longer than 6-8 weeks will it? Second, I've searched quite a bit on whether people lager in a corny and there doesn't seem to be much info. I couldn't imagine why it would be a problem, but it should be ok, yeah? Just looking for confirmation on this one.
After this, is there anything else I need to do or am I basically done? Basement stays around 62-65 in the summertime, will this be alright for lager storage or does that need to be cold as well?
Anything else I should consider? I haven't been this excited about brewing a new style in quite a long time so Ill be really disappointed if this doesn't turn out well. I don't like putting that kind of pressure on myself so I want to cover as many bases as I can before I launch this bad boy.
Thanks for any help I can get on this.