Best Lagering Practices

Well, this should make for an ‘interesting’ thread.

Like with many aspects of brewing “best practice” will have differing thoughts/practices.

I have listened to Dr. Charlie Bamforth discuss lagering “best practices” on a number of podcasts and he has consistently expressed his opinion that a lager beer can be produced quite quickly via an ‘accelerated’ fermentation schedule, with an increasing temperature schedule, and then have the beer lagered at very cold temperatures (e.g., -1 to -2 degrees C) for just a few days. His position is that until somebody(s) has analytical/scientific data to ‘refute’ this practice he will stand by his perspective this is the best/proper way to produce a lager beer.

In contrast I have listened to several podcasts where Adam Brož, the brewmaster at the Budweiser Budvar brewery, discuss how they lager a beer such as Budweiser Budvar (marketed here as Czechvar) for 90 days.

And needless to say there are many breweries that will lager sometime in between. During my tours of the Pilsner Urquell brewery and Únětický pivovar in the Czech Republic they both discussed lagering for about 30 days.

@OldBrewer I sincerely doubt you will find one "best practice" that is universally accepted and even if a person were to advocate one I am 100% certain you would challenge it.

Cheers!

 

A couple of things...I brew lagers based on my equipment capability. For me ferm temps are mid-50s (liquid or dry yeast). In my experience there is little temp rise when fermentation starts, so I just maintain something like 54 from start to finish. With about a day to go I'll raise 3-4 degrees for a couple of days, usually bringing it to 62-64.. Then either transfer to keg or drop back to 50s before kegging depending on my enthusiasm.

I send the keg to my keezer (38) which is far from ideal but refuse to buy another dedicated freezer for lagering. It takes at least 30 days to get ideal results, sometimes a tad longer.

I have never had diacetyl or funky yeast esters. After a month in the keezer it becomes very clear. I make no claims these are best practices but they are practical techniques. Suggest you don't get too hung up with all that science and just brew a few.

 

In addition to what Jack's saying, Ed Wray recently wrote up a few brewery visits from the Institute of Brewers and Distillers study tour to the Czech Republic, with some interesting technical stuff:
Pilsner Urquell: Ed's Beer Site: A visit to Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery (edsbeer.blogspot.com)
Budweiser Budvar: Ed's Beer Site: A visit to Budweiser Budvar brewery (edsbeer.blogspot.com)

I like the subtle humblebrag from the Budvar head brewer: "He said we could take any pictures and they have no secrets - "what we do is in the textbooks.""

 

Cold crash.

A technical article you might be interested in reading: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jib.557

Cheers!

P.S. FWIW, when I make my lager beers I cold crash.

 

Normally straight to lagering temps from the diacetyl rest.

 

From Drew’s article:

· Pitch the yeast at 50°F (10°C) and ferment for three days.

· Raise the temperature to 55°F (13°C) and ferment for three more days.

· Raise the temperature to 60°F (16°C); ferment two more days.

· Raise the temperature to 65°F (18°C); ferment two more days.

That is in essence what Charlie Bamforth advocates but with a cold crash to -1 to -2 degrees C for a few days of lagering afterwards.

Cheers!

 

There are many ways to do it. Production breweries often do a faster fermentation and lagering schedule, as faster tank time is money.

I don't rush it, I often don't do much of a D rest, as the yeast will clean up the D if given more time. I also gradually change the temps, as some say a rapid crash will stress the yeast, I don't know if I've ever noticed a difference.

30⁰F is a good lagering temp for me. I can get brilliant lager with no finings or filtration.
The guide on an Ayinger tour said that they only lager until the beer passes technical tests, then it goes through the filter and is packaged.

 

This is a good point. I know some lager brewers who think that the longer the lagering period, the better. But IMO, once enough stuff has dropped out of suspension to satisfy the brewer, there's really not much good happening with longer storage time. But there is staling.

 

The new Craft Beer and Brewing showed up today. It has an article on Lagering Times.

 

That is an interesting point. It’s why I gradually reduce from diacetyl rest temps to lagering, about 2-4 degrees F a day. I don’t want to stun the yeast or force them to drop out. Otherwise it’s just a cold crash, and would there even be a benefit to lagering at all? You’re just getting everything to drop out. I always understood that unlike ale strains, lager yeast are still doing some “clean up” at cooler temps, until the point they all go dormant.

 

I’m not sure about “stressing” the yeast as much as just making them go dormant and drop out. Lager yeast strains can still function at colder temperatures than ale strains, generally speaking. I could be completely wrong, and often am, but I think the concern of crashing versus stepping down to lagering temps is you’re stunning the yeast, making them dormant, which defeats a good deal of the purpose of lagering anyway. If there’s no yeast activity at all, as VikeMan said above, there’s not much reason to keep the beer on the yeast at that point. It just going stale. But if there’s activity — slow as it may be — that’s kind of the point of lagering.
Again, take my statements with a grain of salt. I don’t brew these days as often as these guys do, and they’ll be more up to date with info. But that’s been my experience, at least.

 

As long as fermentation has finished and you have taken care of any diacetyl or potential diacetyl before lagering, the only real "lagering action" is the sedimentation of yeast, proteins, and polyphenols. Is there something else you believe is happening?