looking for the "Lagering 101" sticky

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pkgmsu2000

RDWHAHB
Joined
Aug 11, 2010
Messages
71
Reaction score
10
Location
Rocky Mountain High
its my bday tomorrow and i will be getting a ton of new stuff for homebrewing, including a digital temp controller for my fridge, glass 6.5 gal carboy and glass 5 gal carboy, stoppers, bubble airlocks, sanitation pails, wort chiller, brew pots, filters, the whole 9 :)

is there a sticky out there for guys like me wanting to know the basics about lagering 101? ive set the bar kinda high with my desire to brew a czech-style pils as my first batch.

TIA :mug:
 
I would consider starting out with an extract batch first, because there is no mash involved. I've come to realize after my first two all-grain attempts for pilsners, that I should have probably done decoction mashes instead of regular single temperature infusion mashes. Also, I assume you know basics about brewing beer including SANITIZATION, specific gravity testing, SANITIZATION, boiling, chilling, aerating, starter making, pitching, primary fermentation, secondary fermentation (at least for lagers, there is a ~2 day diacetyl rest), SANITIZATION, and bottling techniques. Understand the entire brewing process for beer from start to finish- the stuff I'm talking about below is really just lager specific stuff for the most part.

A few days before you start brewing, obtain a large vessel (1G glass jug works great), the yeast you will be using, and some extract and prepare a starter. If you start with a 1/2G and build it up to a 1G starter, this is usually considered optimal for a 5G batch. Once your starter is large (> 1/2G) and has produced a good layer of visible yeast, you can start your brewday.

I like to boil for 90 min instead of 60 to help drive off as much dms as possible. Whether or not this also happens for an extract batch, I'm not sure. I would stick with whatever the recipe you use describes since hop utilization and boiloff are impacted with a change in time.

After the boil/hops additions are done per the recipe, chill the wort down to about 50F (or whatever your yeast's temperature range recommends) and aerate the hell out of the freshly chilled wort. Mix it up, shake it up, pour it aggressively...etc. You want to froth it up and get air back into the wort. Pitch your yeast starter. I decant mine after chilling them in the fridge for a day or so, and pitch the mixed up yeast layer on the bottom of the vessel. The general idea is to aerate the wort once it is below 70F, and pitch the yeast within its temperature range. For lagers, this is about 50F. Put your primary fermentation vessel with lid+airlock in a 50F environment and mark your calendar.

In about two weeks, you should be almost done. Do another specific gravity test and hopefully your beer should be getting pretty low by now (< 1.015'ish for lagers, depending on the recipe). If you are satisfied with the resulting gravity, increase the temperature to about 62F and leave it for 48-72 hours. When finished, rack to a keg or secondary fermentation vessel. Chill the beer by 2-5 degrees F every day from 62F down to 33-40F. Once you've hit the floor with the temperature (don't freeze the beer!), mark your calendar again. It is common to lager for a minimum of a month, usually longer. I do 5 weeks before I even start thinking about tapping a keg, and even then, I'm usually not in the mood to get all done until 6 weeks or more.

I didn't mention it before, but it is imperative above all else to sanitize everything that touches the beer after the boil is done. Tubes, buckets, carboys, kegs, bottles....you name it- if it wasn't in the wort when it was boiling, it needs to be sanitized before it touches the beer.
 
Thank you very much for the quick responses. I appreciate the direction to this kind of information. I've got a lot of reading and research to do before jumping in the wrong way.
 
Back
Top