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Hi, I'm currently doing my first ever lager, a FB Pils kit with two packs of rehydrated S23, and I'm wondering about temps. It started at 12.5 in my temp controller equipped wine fridge, and 5 days later it's now at 1.026 SG based on the first sample I just took. No buttery flavour and the sulphur smell that was in the fridge isn't present in the sniff test before I drank the sample. I'm planning on trying the method listed here more or less:
http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/


My question is - should I up the temp to say 14 for 24 hrs then maybe 16 for 24 before settling on 18 for a week? My plan is to cold crash it after all this before kegging. Does this sound like a good temperature schedule or should I make any changes? Thanks!

I’ve used that method a few times with good success, when I ramp up the temp (when it’s around 50% attenuated)I just set my fermentation chamber to 66-68f (18-20c) and let it warm up rather than gradually bumping up the temps. Careful when cold crashing in the carboy, lots of oxygen and star san can get sucked back into the fermenter...either opt for the S shaped airlock or cold crash in a keg.


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In the past I can get away with a drop of 3 C every 12 hours with no suck back.

Thanks all. I might have an S shaped one so I'll swap it before the CC and slowly ramp down for extra insurance.

For ales I normally just rehydrate the yeast and pitch into pre cooled wort (I leave the kit in my fermenting fridge for 48 hrs at 18C before pouring into the bucket) and let them sit there for 3 weeks. Based on my lager schedule above I'm looking at about 2 weeks in fermenting fridge (it should reach FG in a couple more days and I'll leave it for a week after that) and about a week cold crashed at 1 or 2C before kegging, thats not too long on the yeast in the bucket is it? It tastes great right now so I don't wanna derail things. Once I get one or so of these done I'll feel as comfortable with lagers as I do with ales so bear with me here

I rarely bother with a secondary, unless it’s a high gravity beer or sour I need to age long term, so 5-6 weeks on yeast isn’t a problem in my opinion


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Awesome. Thanks a ton. I've never done a secondary, I did a lot of forum reading before my first batch 2.5 years ago and learned to toss the instructions out and do my own thing timing wise. Worked great for my ale confidence but I'm still learning lagers. I think I've got a solid plan, thanks all.

For cold crashing and lagering you can attach a blow-off tube and a bag/large balloon to the end of the tube. The bag will fill with CO2 from off-gassing as the ferment finishes and then when you cold crash you will pull that CO2 back in. You need about 1-2litres of CO2. I just tape the bag in the end of the tube. Currently I’m using a garbage bag.

Celiacbrew wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 11:22 pm

For cold crashing and lagering you can attach a blow-off tube and a bag/large balloon to the end of the tube. The bag will fill with CO2 from off-gassing as the ferment finishes and then when you cold crash you will pull that CO2 back in. You need about 1-2litres of CO2. I just tape the bag in the end of the tube. Currently I’m using a garbage bag.

I've been looking into this Mike. Did you just any old garbage to harvest the CO2?

Yup. I used a clear garbage bag and some gorilla tape. I don’t worry about sanitizing it since it has a length of tubing between it and the fermenter. If I wanted to do it right I would swap it for a Mylar balloon from the grocery store a o that oxygen was kept out. But with the short chilling time I don’t worry too much about oxygen crossing the plastic bag.

Ok awesome thanks! Might try and grab a Mylar balloon, saw this same setup on Brulosophy


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