Evan!'s Secret Lager Technique

[salad 419]

Since I'm too lazy to search..........

Evan!, how far do you let your lagers go before you let them finish at room temp?
I started at 1.062 and used Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast. I need the beer to finish and hopefully absorb some of this sulfer before I keg and "lager" until BeerFest. I haven't done a gravity reading yet to see where I'm at, but the airlock (even though it's not a good indicator of fermentation is steadily active).

I really need to get this beer out of the fermentation chamber so I can get another beer going for BeerFest.

[wildwest450]

A diacetyl rest is a secret? I usually wait until it's within 4-5 points of finishing, then go up with the temp.

[blacklab]

Don't you give people advice and sell them stuff??

[skeeordye11]

Don't you give people advice and sell them stuff??

I highlighted the important part of that statement.

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

You typically want to do a D-rest once 3/4 of the fermentables are eaten.

[(OG-FG) x 0.25] + FG = gravity to raise temp to D -rest.

So in your case [(62-12)x0.25]+12 = 24.5

This means you should raise to 65ºish once the gravity of your beer is around 1.024. I usually give the beer 3 days at 65º then drop the temps down by 4º a day until I am at 33º. Then lager.

I calculate my lager times based on OG.

OG / 4 = original gravity in plato [Pº]
I lager at least 8 days for every 2 Pº.

so the number of days to lager comes out to:

Pº x 4 → 62/4=15.5Pº → 15.5x4= 62 days or about two months.

This procedure is based on New Lager Brewing by Noonan and has produced some damn fine lagers in my brewery. However, I cannot brew a good Helles to save my life. It is my Elanor, somehow everytime something goes amiss. Anyway, I have brewed a lot of light lagers, Maerzens, Bocks, and Maibocks with this general method and been very successful.

[Evan!]

Look, it's a secret. You acknowledged that much. I might let you in on it for a fee, though---a man's gotta make a living, you know?

Anyway, really, though, I take it out of the fridge as soon as it starts shown any visual signs of slowing down. Typically this is marked by the "churning" in the fermenter slowing down, as well as the krausen starting to fall. There's no measurement or anything. This has always worked for me, but you could go the more scientific route like Burger King is talking about.

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Evan! is doing the same thing. When the krausen starts to fall it is a pretty accurate estimate of the beer having 3/4 of the fermentable gone (In me experience anyway).

[Evan!]

Evan! is doing the same thing. When the krausen starts to fall it is a pretty accurate estimate of the beer having 3/4 of the fermentable gone (In me experience anyway).

Yep, I used to take measurements, but it seemed like 95% of the time, I was roughly at 3/4 through at that point, so I just stopped measuring and have done it "by feel" ever since. Though, I guess if you've never done it "by feel", then starting off by taking measurements, just to get a good idea of what you should be looking for, might be smart. But really, I think Salad's smart enough to just pay close attention and pull it out before it's finished.

()

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Salad- Whatcha brewin?

I haven't gotten any Lagers going yet... sadface. We are not throwing our annual O-fest this year due to budget cuts. I still need to brew my maerzen though; its the best damn beer I brew.

[salad 419]

Well, I've always done the "lazy" lager technique and wait for about 4 weeks before I do the D-rest. I'd like to try to do this one half-assed correctly.

Thanks for the info. I've got it memorized, now.

This thing is chugging along quite nicely, I doubt it's 3/4 of the way through. I may check it tomorrow.