First Lager

[Homegrown Hops]

I am going to make my first lager Saturday. I was lucky enough to find a Wyeast 2124 Bohem Lager XL smack pack and have it in a 3 gallon starter. I would like to pitch half cold and half warm to see what method best fits my palate. To avoid any cleaning fiascos I am wondering if I should go with a blow off tube for the fermenters. Cleaning up yeast sucks and is a waste to boot. I have had little problems with ales using the blow-off tube, but have zero experience with cold fermenting. My other questions is...Should I keep 1/3 of it for later or pitch all in both and harvest them later?

Cheers,
HH

[Speyedr]

Be careful with the temp. If you're pitching half cold, then I suume the fridge will BE at lagering temp (47f - 50f?), but your WARM part will be in the 65f-70f range right? You don't want to crash the temp on the earm start too hard. Gotta slowly get the temp down.

As for the blow-off, I filled my Oktoberfest really close to the top of my secondary, and I needed a blow-off. It worked fine and now that it's dropped I put the airlock back on, no worries. However, depending on what you are using for a primary and the headspace in it, you shouldn't have too Krazy of a Krausen. In my limited experience, Lagers go slow and steady, not like ales.

Good Luck!

Rob

[zymurgest]

Lagers, unlike ales, produce a nice even krausen that rises nice and slow, then sinks just as slow. The Boh Pils I made on monday is now dropping and clearing (OG 1.054, CG 1.012 and falling ever so slowly) nicely with a brilliantly gold color (I only used 1 grain, and 1 hop in this brau), and a nice hop bouquet. The 2124 is a diacetyl producer, so warm it up post krausen for a few days to resorb some of the excess diacetyl that may be present. Even at ale temps, this yeast doesn't get too fruity, although it does show the tendency to be a little bubble gummy if the initial temp is too high. I brew mostly lagers and belgian ales, and have found them to be closely related malt wise, even though the yeasts are worlds apart. The yeast is what makes or breaks the brew imho, and I like to mash on the low side and ferment on the high side so that the malt comes through cleanly with good hop report to balance it all together, Good luck!

Prost!

Michel

[Homegrown Hops]

So I recently entered the Pilsner I made in the Humboldt County Fair and received a medal and was awarded Best Lager. There was a $25 prize in gift certificates the the NorthCoast Coop and a certificate to boot. I will post the recipe in the forum.

HH



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[beer_bear]

Congratulations!! Nice job. I'm glad to se so many award winners in the BN Brewers Club. WTG.