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Re: brewing lager

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 8:55 am
by steve crawshaw
Hi Rodney
Have a look at this

http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/

Its a fast method for fermenting lager. Basically you pitch at 10C, hold for a week \ 10 days, then ramp up slowly to 20C, hold for 4 - 7 days for a diacetyl rest then ramp down to 1 or 2 C to lager. then rack to a keg and serve (or bottle).

I used this for a recent czech lager I made. It worked well, but I would do a longer diacetyl rest next time (i did 3 days) as I got slight green apple (acetaldehyde).

don't forget to rehydrate your yeast before you pitch it.

give it a go.

cheers
steve

Re: brewing lager

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:19 am
by rodneygullick
I've got the temperature sensor loose in the fridge along side of the barrel should it be attached to the barrel somehow (eg some form of tape ) ? it is set at 14.5 to 15 degs at the moment

Re: brewing lager

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 9:47 am
by steve crawshaw
i wouldn't worry about it. over the course of a few hours the air temp and wort temp will start to come together.
cheers
steve

Re: brewing lager

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:57 am
by mtbmatt
I did read an article some time back in BYO mag about where to place your temp probe.

The tester had a probe in the wort, stuck to the outside of the FV, and loose in the fridge.

I can't recall how he got to the result, but he did decide that stuck to the outside of the FV was the best way.

Now I tape the probe to the FV, AND insulate it with a thick mulit-layer of bubble wrap tapped over the top of the probe.

Dunno how much of a difference it makes, but i can at least be sure that the recorded temp, is the wort temp on the outside of the FV (the inside might be warmer due to fermentation, although convection currents should see that equalise??

Re: brewing lager

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:26 pm
by rodneygullick
as this is my first attempt at doing a lager I will proceed as I am going , I started to ferment on last Tuesday 22nd I will now leave at that, on the 2nd of October I will increase the temperature to 18.5 to 19degs until Tuesday 6th of October then I will check the gravity if it is any thing near 1012 I will bottle it and put it into a cask