Lager

[Adamjagger]

Can someone talk me through the lagering process and steps to ensure a clear crisp lager? Is cold crashing different to lagering?

 

[Gethin79]

I'm no expert myself, I'm sure if I tell you anything wrong, somebody will correct me!

I am doing a Coopers European Lager at the moment, which uses a true lager yeast, and as such fermentation at lower temperatures. In my case I fermented at 13C ish. Towards the end of the fermentation I raised the temperature to 18C for a diacetyl rest. This is to give the yeast a chance to get rid of any diacetyl which can apparently cause buttery flavours in your beer.

After this rest, I transferred into a sanitized secondary fermenting bucket, to get it off all of the dead yeast at the bottom of the bucket. At this point I put this into my fridge, set at 2C.

I think cold crashing is just the term used for the reduction of temperature from fermentation to lagering temperature. The lagering is the period of time the lager stays in the fridge at this low temperature, enabling the yeast to fall out of suspension and the lager to clear. After 3/4 weeks at this temperature the lager can be bottled and should hopefully be nice and clear!

This info comes from lots of research and advice given from this forum, I hope it helps in some way.

 

[rpt]

Cold crashing is very quickly lowering the temperature. Lager is German for storage. Lagering is storing the beer at a low temperature for an extended period. The yeast will continue to work, cleaning up the flavour and eventually dropping out. You actually don't want to cold crash before lagering as you don't want to shock the yeast. Having said that, I'm not sure many home brewers can actually cold crash - my fridge takes several hours to drop from 12C down to 2C.

You can lager down to about -2C - the beer doesn't freeze due to the alcohol. The colder the temperature, the quicker the lager is conditioned. One thing I don't understand though, is whether the yeast is still active at this very low temperature.

 

[Gethin79]

I think the yeast becomes dormant, only reactivating when priming sugar is added and brought up to room temperature at bottling time?

 

[Bopper]

I will keep it simple...Ferment at recommended temperature which is usually 9-15C! TIP: Pitch the yeast at that temperature with aerated wort as it can be very slow and sluggish + make sure you have enough yeast cells for your batch and ferment right out, in the secondary keep at 0.5C for about 3 months, time is of the essences..TRUST ME. I don't care what your read about lager-ing and what everyone tells you, do this and you will have crisp lager.... Commercial brewerys have got this off to a T, plus the mass will rise in temperature.



Richard

 

[Adamjagger]

Thanks for the advice. It confirms the stuff I have already researched. Are most people on here ale / bitter brewers?

 

[pittsy]

Most but not all you get a lot of belgian and german lovers too , i myself love hefeweizen

 

[Gethin79]

Most but not all you get a lot of belgian and german lovers too , i myself love hefeweizen

I've still yet to taste a wheat beer...several people have told me I'm missing out. I'm going to buy one this week and see what I'm missing

 

[pittsy]

erdinger is ok a bit bland , try a franzikaner or a weihenstephan or maybe a paulanner . a hoegaarden is a belgian white beer made from lots of wheat but not the same ( nice though ) .

 

[Gethin79]

erdinger is ok a bit bland , try a franzikaner or a weihenstephan or maybe a paulanner . a hoegaarden is a belgian white beer made from lots of wheat but not the same ( nice though ) .

Thanks! Shopping trip tomorrow! :party:

 

[pittsy]

for something totally different try a sour beer often with cherry or some other fruit , not a drink for all night but nice to have 1 . And another nice drinks are belgian ales usually strong and classed as doubles or trippels (not all are very strong but most are) starting at around 6% but more likely 8% and above . You don't sup em you sip em , that's why they come in half size bottles nice but again only 1 or 2 in a night drinking .
Also look out for a lovely german lager called warsteiner , lager as it should be . Lovely .

 

[Jbrew]

Going on from this could someone explain what the secondary vessel is, Is it another brewing bucket or can you bottle the beer and then let it ferment in a fridge for the three months mentioned
If it is a bucket do you then bottle at the end of the lagering process and if so how do you get the Fizz???

The reason i ask is that i have a spare freezer that i could convert but its not big enough to fit a brewing bucket or a glass carboy come to that.
I could however fit in several standard 1 gallon demijohns or a stack of bottles

Any advice gratefully received :

 

[Bopper]

A secondary vessel is the same as the first vessel( clean fermenter), but you need to rack off the lager and leave the yeast and the crap behind(trub) so all you got is just lager and put it under an air-lock. To give it the fizz you either have to put in a pressure barrel/corny keg and use co2, alternately use bottles with the right amount of priming sugar.

P.S I'VE WROTE THIS IN LAYMEN'S TERMS.



Richard

 

[DirtyCaner]

I make lager, I think it's great, and so do most of my mates.

I ferment for 7-10 days, then raise 1c a day until 16c for diacetyl rest. Keep it there for 3-4 days. Then crash cool to 2c for lagering phase of 2 weeks. Then bottle. I don't use a secondary, but siphon off to a bottling bucket, before priming and bottling.


Hope that helps,

DirtyC

 

[Jbrew]

It certainly does help

I'm now a little clearer on how long the beer stays in what vessel

Thanks

 

[Bopper]

I will explain...The first vessel(fermenter) as long as it takes, ive never had lager ferment right out within 2 weeks...... The secondary vessel(fermenter) is to separate the liquid from the crap and lager(3 months for lovely crisp lager), for a pressure barrel/corny keg...if your going to bottle you need to read up, one main reason, if the lager is not fully fermented and you add priming, this could cause a bottle bomb. I'M SURE A LOT OF HOME BREWERS HAVE HAD THIS?

Richard!

 

[Good Ed]

lager is worth the little bit of extra effort, which isn't much imo; Munich Helles is my favourite, but have also brewed Bohemian Pilsner and Classic American Pilsner. Most important thing is pitching enough yeast, see Mr Malty

I have a cellar which is about 12C at the moment which is ideal, also I tend not to transfer to a second vessel, I then bottle and keep for few months stored in the cellar.

 

[Aleman]

I will explain...The first vessel(fermenter) as long as it takes, ive never had lager ferment right out within 2 weeks...... The secondary vessel(fermenter) is to separate the liquid from the crap and lager(3 months for lovely crisp lager), for a pressure barrel/corny keg...if your going to bottle you need to read up, one main reason, if the lager is not fully fermented and you add priming, this could cause a bottle bomb. I'M SURE A LOT OF HOME BREWERS HAVE HAD THIS?

That is not an explanation!

I will keep it simple...Ferment at recommended temperature which is usually 9-15C! TIP: Pitch the yeast at that temperature with aerated wort as it can be very slow and sluggish + make sure you have enough yeast cells for your batch and ferment right out, in the secondary keep at 0.5C for about 3 months, time is of the essences..TRUST ME. I don't care what your read about lager-ing and what everyone tells you, do this and you will have crisp lager.... Commercial brewerys have got this off to a T, plus the mass will rise in temperature.

I don't think you have explained enough about what is going on for anyone to Trust you, and you can simplify things to far.

If you pitch enough yeast at the correct fermentation temperature, then your lager will ferment well. The Czech brewers have this down to an art and use the following formula of 1 day of fermentation for each degree Plato of gravity (1 Plato = 4 Gravity points s a 12 Plato beer is 1.048, and a 10 Plato beer is 1.040), then transfer to a lager tank and lager at 1-4C for 1 week for each degree Plato . . . during this time the lager yeast continues to work at chewing up the longer chain sugars . . . As long as you have the mash conditions right, and the right yeast strain then your lager will be clean and crisp.

Cold Crashing is the sudden lowering of temperature from fermentation temperature to a temperature at which the yeast stops working, it is usually used with ale yeasts to drop most of the yeast out of the FV . . .particularly if the yeast is a top cropper.

 

[Bopper]

I've tried to keep it very very simple and not google extracts, this from brewing tons and tons of batches of lager, as no one in this household like ale, so this from my brewing experiences. Regarding Czech brewers, this is commercial brewing thousand of gallons at a time and not home brewing 5 gals, its totally different?

P.S The guy does NOT understand, so do NOT confuse him even more with rests etc...


Richard

 

[DirtyCaner]

A FG reading on bottling day should prevent any bottle bombs. You can always reduce the mount of priming sugar if required. Mine has usually fermented out by this point though.