lagering advice

[micmacmoc]

I did my first all grain lager last week, 4kg of lager malt and hopped with saaz and hall. hersbrucker. I used s23 yeast, three packs, rehydrated. The wort was fermented at 10C, a convenient garage temp, down from 1043 to 1023 then put the barrel in the office for a rest (16-18C)for three days where it dropped to 1010. I now have it sitting in my fridge at 4-5C. My question is how long should I lager it for? I have heard a week for every 10 degrees OG....I really don't want to wait four weeks but if the difference is that great then I'm prepared to....after all I have another brew on as I write this! 10 gallons of use up the hops ale, 1043 best bitter!


I'm not much of a lager drinker really but love those expensive czech and German ones, if this works well I'd love to do a pilsener style. I don't fancy any of hat complex mashing malarky though, seems tedious to me.

How much sugar would be best for batch priming 5 gallons of lager? Presumably it'd be a bit higher than that of an ale?

Thanks in advance!

Do you think its a bit early for a pint? I've been up since 5am!

 

[Aleman]

I now have it sitting in my fridge at 4-5C. My question is how long should I lager it for? I have heard a week for every 10 degrees OG....

The Czech Rule is 1 Week for each degree Plato, so a 1.048 beer (12 Plato) would be lagered fro 12 Weeks :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

 

[micmacmoc]

Blimey! That is not going to happen.....I think this one will be foreshortened whilst I get another one on the go. I intended to start lagers back in November, had I done so they'd be ready by now. Proper planning etc etc.

 

[Aleman]

If you can drop the temp to -1C you can shorten the lagering period considerably. In effect it becomes 1 day at -1C for each week of lagering at 2C.

What happens is the protein fragments cause ice crystals to form which drags them out of suspension (sort of).

I would still go with a couple of weeks lagering at more normal temperatures anyway

 

[micmacmoc]

Righty! Thanks aleman. I'll get the fridge down as low as I can and then give it the month I intended. I just want something thats better than 'lager lout' lagers, you know, that tinny metallic yuck rather than the crisp refreshing sparkle I hope to achieve.

Would priming with 100g of sugar be about right for 5 gllons of lager for bottling?

 

[shearclass]

Aleman, or anyone else who knows, please can you help me with my lager questions?

I posted a thread but got limited response.

I am making kit lager (Coopers Mexican Cerveza), with actual lager yeast (i ditched the kit yeast) and i plan to do another lager kit with actual lager yeast very soon (Coopers Pilsner, probably this weekend)

Coopers kit instructions say to ferment for a week or so, then bottle and keep for 3 months before drinking.

An alternative i've been told is to ferment for a fortnight, then transfer to another vessel and keep for a month at low temperatures, then bottle.

Questions i have are

a) what happens during the month, or however long i 'lager' the brew?
b) when i come to bottle, will their be enough yeast left in suspension (whatever that means) to make a gassy lager/pilsner? Or will i need to add more yeast? (perhaps i could use the kit yeast that I've been keeping when i've been purchasing extra yeast)
c) this question is less pressing, but i am considering dry hopping the pilsner (the hoppier is, the less of it my girlfriend will drink :whistle: ) as i love hoppy beer, could this be done during the lagering process, or would this be too long?

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

You can do a cracking lager type ale using pale malt, wheat malt to 47 IBU's and S-05 with a 3 week turnover.
Bollox to lagering!

 

[Good Ed]

Would priming with 100g of sugar be about right for 5 gllons of lager for bottling?

Questions i have are

a) what happens during the month, or however long i 'lager' the brew?
b) when i come to bottle, will their be enough yeast left in suspension (whatever that means) to make a gassy lager/pilsner? Or will i need to add more yeast? (perhaps i could use the kit yeast that I've been keeping when i've been purchasing extra yeast)
c) this question is less pressing, but i am considering dry hopping the pilsner (the hoppier is, the less of it my girlfriend will drink :whistle: ) as i love hoppy beer, could this be done during the lagering process, or would this be too long?

I usually lager in a fridge for about 5-6 weeks at 4C, but at least some time in the cold will improve conditioning. As I understand it this settles out the tannins and haze forming proteins. But before this, the most important part is fermenting at the correct low temperature for the yeast, usually 12-14C.

I usually batch prime with 30g sugar per gallon or 140g for 23L, I also add a slurp of some rehydrated S-23, although I'm not sure if that is necessary. It means buying a packet and just using a bit, which is ok if you are doing another brew.

I wouldn't know much about dry hopping, and I'm don't think the pilsener style lends itself to this, but by all means try it, use a bag and pull it out after a couple of weeks, You might try Herbrucker rather than Saaz.

Good luck :

 

[shearclass]

I usually batch prime with 30g sugar per gallon or 140g for 23L, I also add a slurp of some rehydrated S-23, although I'm not sure if that is necessary. It means buying a packet and just using a bit, which is ok if you are doing another brew.

As I am jsut using Kits, I assume i cuold just some of the kit yeast? I will not be using this to ferment with as i've bought extra, proper lager type yeast for that. Does it matter if it's ale yeast if i'm just using a bit of it, and just using it for carbonation? And when you say a bit, do you mean like 2g? more/less?

I had a Brewdog lager last week, which was quite hoppy, so thought i may dry hop a pilsner kit and see how it worked out.

Thanks for your help! :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

I would stick to using a lager year, as an ale yeast will change the flavour. I'm not very scientific with mine, the last time, I rehydrated a packet of S-23 with about 100ml water (per the recommendations) and added a tablespoon of this when batch priming 23L and used the rest in a 10L extract lager recipe.

I'm sure that there would be enough yeast left in the beer to carbonate, even after 6 weeks of lagering, but I still add some to be sure to be sure.