temp for initial bottleing of lager ?

[brydo]

hi guys, its my understanding that after bottleing you should sit the beer at room tempreture for a couple of days then move to a cooler place for conditioning (hope thats right) does this apply to a lager as well or i should i move it straight away to the cooler tempreture ? im thinking to stick it in the big fridge at work so it will lager at a constant 3oc for four weeks before i crack one open. cheers guys

 

[markm1878]

no... you'll have very flat beer if you do that.

If you're bottle conditioning (adding extra sugar and allowing the yeast to consume them, locking in the co2 produced which creates the carbonation) then you need to do that at a temp that the yeast can work at. Personally, I'd leave it at room temps for 2-3 weeks, then move somewhere cool to condition. There shouldn't be any off flavours as its such a tiny amount of sugar.

Also, depends what lager you've done. If you're a kit brewer, most lager kits have ale yeasts anyway. I would personally give it 2 weeks in the warm to carbonate, then 3-4 weeks somewhere cold to condition.

 

[brydo]

cheers markm, the brew was a one gallon biab with lager malt, flaked maize and a mangrove jacks bohiemen lager yeast. ive got 6 bottles from it and this is gonna be my setup for a while as i dont have space for a full all grain brew.

 

[markm1878]

Good stuff. I've recently made a few small batch all grains. Really good intro to brewing and for experimenting. Hope it goes well.

In short then, 2 weeks in the warm, then as long as you can bear in the cold! As you've only 6 bottles, i'd recommend trying one no earlier than 4 or 5 weeks in bottles otherwise they'll be gone before they get towards their best.

 

[brydo]

yeah ive bought another demi john and have another one fermenting away, i had a coopers heritage lager kit before and my first was youngs pilsner, both decent kits but was looking to move up, will probably do another kit too just to keep the stockpile up. cheers for the advice mate