First lager!!

Beer Recipes
1

Any ideas on what a good first lager would be? Maybe thinking helles or bock or maybe Oktoberfest.

Any tips would be highly appreciated. I also should add I have a temperature controlled vessel.

2

I vote Munich Dunkel!

3

Yummmmm

4

i would also vote for a dunkel.  very forgiving. no big deal if it fades into a schwarzbier.  loaded with flavor.  also nice headed in to the winter, be ready for first of march.  then follow this up with a good dopplebock for easter.

5

My first lager ( last January ) was a Munich Helles and I got a silver at NHC.  Your results may vary (i.e. Gold :slight_smile: ).

Temp control, big yeast pitch, O2, and time/patience.  I also use a method that I heard from Jamil Zainasheff about letting the wort sit overnight at fermentation temp, transferring to another vessel, hitting it with O2 and pitch the yeast.  I was amazed at how much break material formed just overnight in the first carboy.  It is now a method I use with all my lagers.  I pitch cold ( 44 F ) and let it free rise to 50 F and hold it there.

Good luck!

6

Schwarzbier

7

That is pretty standard for the German brewers. Maybe Kai can say if they all do it. Might be something to try.

Good show on the Silver.

8

My first lager was a Schwarzbier, brewed on Black Friday 2011.  The last bottle was consumed last week, Black Friday 2012.

9

Sounds fun!! I’ll try that method!!

10

for a standard 1.050ish lager the slurry from a gallon starter would not be too big! You will have the best results following the advice above, chill down to ~44-46, aerate big and pitch. Let it settle out ~48-50.

11

Thanks for all the advice. Feel like I’m really gaining some valuable knowledge

12

well, knowledge any way 8)

13

Big +1 to jamils method.  Made my first lager (ok fest) and it turned out GREAT.  Clean and malty.

14

So you let it settle overnight and then just rack to primary and ferment?

15

Not necessarily JZ’s method. This is standard lager practice.

16

I always chilled as far as I could, racked off and finished chilling to 44 in my fermentation chamber (chest freezer with temp control). When I first started brewing lagers I had an old fridge that on the warmest setting was 45 degrees. That worked perfectly.

17

That’s it.

Blasphemy!!!  Don’t you know Jamil is an omnipresent, immortal time traveler ( kinda like Q ) that invented beer?  I’d be careful or he will go back in time and spit in your first homebrew, infecting it and make you never want to brew again  ;D

I assumed it was some ancient chinese secret, but I learned of it first from Jamil, so I give him some credit.

18

i brew about 2 gallons at a time in a 4 g  pot.  before i built an immersion chiller i would just let it cool enough to handle and put it in the fridge overnight. then the next day pour into my bucket add yeast and voila.

19

I learned the old “Chill it down and rack before pitching” trick from JZ as well. It is really nifty and turns out awesome!

  1. Chill the wort down to 41 F (5 C) and settle overnight
  2. Rack the wort off the trub into your primary
  3. Pitch the yeast
  4. Let that badboy free rise to around 48 F (9 C)
  5. When the fermentation finally looks like it is starting to slack, kick the temp up to 50 F (10 C)
  6. When you are within a few points of your FG, ramp up to around 61 F (16 C) until it reaches FG to let the yeast to clean up (diacetyl is the devil)
      * This is really important if you made your starter at room temp

I do this for most every lager. After i do all this I usually cold crash it as well to get any lingering yeast to settle out. Then I rack it to the keg and lager for 4 weeks or more, but a minimum of 4 weeks.

20

This sounds perfect… I’ll take notes!!