Question: My First Lager

If you leave it at the high 40's -50's you'll have yourself a steam beer I believe. IF... you can maybe get yourself a container to hold your carboy/bucket in so you could put ice around it on a regular basis for a couple weeks or more then do that and you can maybe have an effective lagering process. freezer and temp controller together will cost you 200 bucks or so if you can do it, or even a mini fridge that can hold your container that your fermenting in.

Do your diacetyl rest for a couple days, when the fermentation slows down, put in secondary then start to drop the temp down 5 degrees, each day til you reach between 32-38 degrees. Once you do this, let it set at this temp for a couple of weeks... or more if you like and thats it! I know your not going to be able to do this without some help from either the icing your fermentation vessel or getting a fridge or freezer for temp control, BUT, If you can't do either of these things, your beer will still be perfect!

My lagering process may not be spot on but it works! I hope that I was able to help some.

 

There won't be no way around the temp fluctuation for sure but 35-45 degrees won't be bad at all for your lagering! Thats going to work out just fine! Awesome! I've done many beers with swings in temp and you know what, they turned out delicious. Your beer is going to be absolutely perfect.

 

I may be stating the obvious, but go by hygrometer reading to decide when to transfer, not the amount of bubbles.

 

While I'm sure your attempt at a lager will be drinkable and hopefully enjoyable, you really need a temperature control set up to properly ferment a lager and then subsequently lager it. Otherwise it will have some off flavors which won't be off putting necessarily but it just won't be crisp and clean like a lager should be. If you plan on brewing more down the road look into getting a temperature control set up. Even with one, making a good lager is challenging.

 

If you pitch cold (<50F) the yeast will produce less diacetyl in the lag and growth phase.

 

Ok, there were a number of questions asked by the OP.

Firstly, the situation is: “I had been fermenting in my garage at a very steady temp. of about 48 degrees for the last 30 days.”

The typical timeframe for the primary fermentation of a 1.048 gravity lager is 14 days (give or take a day or so). So, at 30 days you are definitely done primary fermentation. You could conduct a diacetyl rest if you are so inclined (it won’t harm anything) but at this point I doubt that a diacetyl rest will do anything. The proper way to conduct a diacetyl rest is to raise the temperature of the primary to around 60°F when you are about done primary fermentation (i.e., when you are a few gravity points from reaching final gravity). Since at 30 days you have reached final gravity conducting a diacetyl rest is a mute point. FWIW, I never conduct a diacetyl rest for my homebrewed lagers (I have made something like 70 batches of lager) and I have never had a problem with diacetyl (and yes, I can taste diacetyl).

Now, given that you have finished primary what are the options about the lagering process.

One option is the tub of water with refreezable ice (e.g., refreeze 2 liter soda bottles) to achieve lagering temperatures. The benefit of this method is that with diligence you will achieve a stable lagering temperature.

Another option is the shed. The ‘good news’ is that 5 gallons of beer has a lot of thermal mass. Even though the shed will ‘swing’ from 30 – 50 degrees the beer will not swing that wide. Basscram provided a guess of 35-45 degrees for the beer. What does a daily swing of 35-45 degrees do to the lagering process? Boy, I have no idea. It may be just fine but I just don’t know. I have only lagered at stable temperatures.

A third option is to bottle your beers, let them bottle condition at room temperature for 2-3 weeks and then lager in the bottles. Do you have a refrigerator that can accommodate two cases of beer for a month or so of cold conditioning?

There may be a fourth option but it is not coming to mind.

A short treatise on lagering: the primary purpose of the lagering process is that the cold temperatures encourage proteins and polyphenols to precipitate out. The result is the classic ‘crisp’ taste that we associate with lager beers.

Good luck with your lager!

Cheers!

 

What Jack said. There's little to be gained in a diacetyl rest at this point, if the beer's already been at fermentation temp for a month. You will need to figure out some way to drop the temp at least about 10 degrees below where the beer was fermenting in order to lager. There are all sorts of ways to do this even without a dedicated refrigerator, although that's ideal. If you don't, the beer should still be good, but might taste more like a steam than a CAP.

 

“ …it is somehow holding steady around 36 degrees. That is GREAT news! Thanks for sharing that information.

“Next year for Christmas, Santa better pony up the bucks for a garage fridge.” Why pay for the electricity to run a fridge when the shed method seems to be working just fine?

Good luck with your lager and please report back how it turned out.

Cheers!

 

love making lagers, but they definitely have a "wait...wait...wait...drink it all in a week" tendency in my house.

congrats on your first success!

 

I am very glad to hear the good news. It truly sounds like your lager turned out great. Good for you!

Cheers!

 

what the hell's a diaceytl rest? and is that just for lagers?

 

With lagers, it's raising the temperature at/near the end of fermentation so that the yeast can clean up any diacetyl they had produced. With ales, it could be raising the temp or it could be just maintaining the same temp, but leaving the beer with the yeast a little longer. Diacetyl rests are more common (and generally more necessary) with lagers than with ales, but it's very strain dependent.