Questions on making a Munich Helles.

So now that I've done this by accident, I can bottle and let it Lager in the fridge? In the directions it says I would need to gradually lower the temperature by 1-3 degrees a day. How will a fairly immediate drop from lagering in the fridge affect the beer?

 

Just to be clear, you find need to perform the bottle conditioning process first: store the bottles at room temperature for 2-3 weeks in order to carbonate. Once the beer is carbonated you can place them in the refrigerator to lager for the duration you deem proper (e.g., 4 weeks).

Once they are carbonated you can drink a few but the beers will become 'better' with lagering time.

Cheers!

 

You can lager in the bottle. The only disadvantage to that is that the stuff that drops out of suspension (the reason for lagering) will still be in your beer, at the bottom of the bottle. So I'd suggest not moving them around a lot and pouring very carefully.

 

If you're going to do a lager your process needs to be very tight with temperature, pitch rate, and a lot of patience to not drink the beer before it's ready. If you bottle, just remember that this is going to take up a lot of your bottles for a long time. That said, I've had great success with a swamp cooler setup in my basement. This is a borrowed pic, but you get the gist. Add frozen 2 liters and water to regulate the temperature for 10ish hours. You say you're working with a pretty cold basement anyway. I'dd add about 6 or 7 gallons of water just to help temperature swings. Grab a temp of the water every 12 to 24 hours. You may as well get a temp on the beer too. Sanitize and do the beer first. Clean your thermometer with the water in the Tupperware while getting your water temp.



You'll want to do a diacetyl rest. This is a gradual rise in temp to help the yeast clean up after themselves. This makes your beer taste less like butter. I'm going to go against a grain of a lot of brewers here and say that a good time to start checking for FG would be when you see your airlock activity slow down, (so long as your airlock has shown activity). A good D rest is done with the last 10-15% of your gravity still remaining. If you're a new brewer and you're going to pull off a lager, you have to be diligent.

 

Oh, and make sure you get your wort to the same temp, or under the temp you want to pitch at. Very important.

 

Don't sweat, you are already into it. If you bottle, let it lager in the fridge for as long as you can and it will clean up nicely.

 

Thanks for all the advice! Yeah, it was my ignorance of brewing that made me pick a lager for my first brew.

 

I brewed a munich helles lager as my second ever brew. It turned out pretty good, (no off flavors) but there was always the guessing and waiting game because lager yeasts are bottom fermenters, prefer colder temps, and take a longer to clarify.

If I were a first time brewer I would definitely opt for an ale yeast like US-05 and try a pale ale or IPA because they are pretty straight forward, and a lot less harder to screw up.