Tasty: Driving Fermentation and Lagers

[summy]

I have made Tasty's Dortmunder with the only changes being that I used Nelson Sauvin at flameout and I did lager mine for about a month to five weeks. It was truly fantastic, one if my most popular batches.

[JohnF]

I'm not sure if my experience conditioning beers on a 8.5 bb system translates to the 5 gal scale, but I feel that if you need to get the beer out the door after 2 weeks of lagering, it will still be very tasty, but if you can wait the 4-5 weeks, then do it.

Home brewed beers should require shorter lagering, if anything, as at least the clearing type processes are going to occur at a rate in terms of depth per unit time and homebrew tanks are more shallow.

[baltobrewer]

Mike, great writeup. I have been following the Jamil procedure of pitching cold but I haven't been raising the temps at all during fermentation, so I will definitely follow your lead on the gradual temp rise to get my lagers movin'. They take 3 weeks to finish, more often than not. Tasty, but slow. Thanks for the info!

[TimmyR]

Great thread. I just brewed my first lager (Oktoberfest) and split the ferment between 820 and 833. I am 3-weeks into fermentation at 49F and just finished a 3-4 D-rest at 62F. I have seen fast results on ales but not pushed it to 2-3 weeks. I am interested in the Dortmunder recipe fast turn around.

[Mills]

Hey Mike,

I did JZ Schwarzbier on Tuesday night and pitched an appropriate starter of 830. I followed your fermentation schedule all the way so far. It is now Sunday and my fermentation is finishing. My krausen has fallen and the beer is starting to clear. I am a bit freaked out by this. It seems to be fermenting more like an ale than a lager. I will continue to follow the regimen the rest of the way, but do I need to be rousing the fermentor since it is starting to clear? Is this what your lagers do when you follow that fermentation line up?

Mills

My Dortmunder Export (1.050) takes two weeks from flame to glass. I raise the temperature in response to the level of fermentation I see in the blow-off. A typical regimen would be 50F for about three days, 52F for another two days, 55F for two days, 60F for two days, 70F for 3 days. Then I rack and crash on day 12, filter and carbonate on day 14. I use WLP833.

Tasty

[TastyMcD]

Hey Mike,

I did JZ Schwarzbier on Tuesday night and pitched an appropriate starter of 830. I followed your fermentation schedule all the way so far. It is now Sunday and my fermentation is finishing. My krausen has fallen and the beer is starting to clear. I am a bit freaked out by this. It seems to be fermenting more like an ale than a lager. I will continue to follow the regimen the rest of the way, but do I need to be rousing the fermentor since it is starting to clear? Is this what your lagers do when you follow that fermentation line up?

Mills

My Dortmunder Export (1.050) takes two weeks from flame to glass. I raise the temperature in response to the level of fermentation I see in the blow-off. A typical regimen would be 50F for about three days, 52F for another two days, 55F for two days, 60F for two days, 70F for 3 days. Then I rack and crash on day 12, filter and carbonate on day 14. I use WLP833.

Tasty

I'm assuming the beer is clearing because the beer is finishing primary fermentation so I would accelerate the temperature ramp-up into the 60s for two days and 70 for 3 days. I don't see anything out of the ordinary other than an apparently good fermentation, but I'd take a gravity reading to see where you are against the expected terminal gravity to verify that the beer is nearing completion.

Tasty

[boobookittyfuk]

tasty,

i am convinced that the success with the lager fermentation that you are doing is with the pitch of yeast. So, i have a few questions about what to do.

how many yeast packages and at what volume of starter do you make for X gallon batch?

what temperature do you do the starter at?

how long do you let it go?

how do you chill it down to pour off the liquid?

when you pour in the new wort, do you just keep that in the same place as the beer wort?

thanks man!

[TastyMcD]

tasty,

i am convinced that the success with the lager fermentation that you are doing is with the pitch of yeast. So, i have a few questions about what to do.

how many yeast packages and at what volume of starter do you make for X gallon batch?
>For 11 gallons, I make a 1.5 gallon starter on a stirplate using two vials of yeast. (I think Mr Malty recommends 3 vials).

what temperature do you do the starter at?
>Room temperature.

how long do you let it go?
>Until it's completely fermented.

how do you chill it down to pour off the liquid?
>I put it in my kegerator for two days.

when you pour in the new wort, do you just keep that in the same place as the beer wort?
>Not clear on the question. I pitch when the wort is two degrees below my primary fermentation temperature, typically 50F.