I am about to make my first lager…Im using wy2124 yeast…The temp range for this yeast is 45-55*F…So just to make sure i understand the process of making a lager im gonna give the process that i think i should do and let me know if i have the right idea
First i will mash,sparge,boil like usual
cool down to 45F
pitch large starter
ferment @45F for 4 weeks
D.rest for 2-3 days @ 60-65F
crash cool, rack to keg and lager @ 35-38F for 1-2 months
Do i have the process down? Anything i am missing or doing wrong?
cheers
A “D” rest is only needed if diacetyl is in the beer. You won’t hurt the beer by raising the temp is no diacetyl is there. It’s just an unneeded process.
A “D” rest is only needed if diacetyl is in the beer. You won’t hurt the beer by raising the temp is no diacetyl is there. It’s just an unneeded process.
Cool thanks…I will employ a D rest cause i am not experienced enough to knowwhether there is or is not diacetyl…I hear butterscotch slick mouth feel but since it cant hurt doing a D rest why not…thank you
Trust me, a quick sample after a couple weeks and you will be able to taste the butteriness (yep think I made that word up) of a d-bomb. If you pitch enough yeast this is negligible. But, it doesn’t hurt to do a d rest. I always do one to help drop a few gravity points as well as cleaning up any by-products.
a d-rest will not work if you wait 3-4 weeks to start it. you want the yeast to still be active so start raising the temp for d-rest when fermentaion is about 70% complete. if you are useing pils malt you will need to increase the boil volume to allow for a 90 minute boil to drive off DMS.
45 is really on the cold side for primary ferment of a lager in my opinion… I always go for about 49-51. I like 3 weeks in primary. . . . then about 3-5 days I bring it up into the low 60’s. Then keg… lager in the keg for 8-12 weeks. Usually start drinking some around 10-12 weeks from brew day.
Also, a real key is a great starter. 1 smack pack is not enough… even moreso if you are going 45 degrees. sounds like you have a starter planned - that is good.
because that is the way a d-rest is performed. after fermation is about 70% complete you slowly raise the temp about 10 degrees above your fermentation temp. how did tou think a d-rest was done?
edit: my bad, I just noticed I wrote drop insted of raise. sorry. I corrected the post.
