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I’ve always wanted to make a Lager but never did because you have to ferment in colder temperatures than Ales and I never really had the equipment to do so. I really don’t have any special equipment this time around except that I have a PID controller that I use for running my still that can control the temperature based on the settings you program in. I’m going to use my beer fridge to lager in but I actually need the temperature to be controlled higher than a normal refrigerator temperature (at least initially) and the PID controller actually works for that, I know because I already experimented with it before I bought this kit.
Anyway, I’m excited about this one and it should actually be Fall when this is ready, not 105 degrees outside like it is now. AND THE OKTOBERFEST BEERS ARE ALREADY OUT! UGH! This recipe kit is called Special Oktoberfest Ale and you can find a link for it here: 5 Gallon All Grain Recipes – Home Beer Brewing Kits (homebeerbrewkits.com) For this 5gallon All Grain kit you get 11lbs of Pilsner grains, 8oz of Caramel Munich Malt, 8oz of Caravienne Malt, 8oz of Abbey Malt, 1oz of Perle Hops and 1oz of Mt. Hood Hops. It also came with 11.5 grams of Fermentis SafAle Dry Yeast (that you add to the order when ordering the grain kit.) I ordered (1) more of these yeast packets to make sure I get a complete fermentation of my wort. Here is a link for this yeast if you need any extra : Individual Ingredients – Home Beer Brewing Kits (homebeerbrewkits.com)
I will report back and add to this post after I make this beer. I’m itching to get started but I brew in the garage and it’s way too hot to be out there. As always, please reach out to me for any questions or comments about this recipe, until then….
Cheers!
Scott
9/6/23 – Quick update – I brewed this beer on 9/3/23 over the Labor Day weekend and it is currently fermenting and should take about 3 weeks since I’m lagering it. During that time, I will come up with a beer name and maybe make some labels. The caramel brown ale is up next.
9/19/23 – Just a quick update, I fermented this batch at around 50-55 degrees for 10 days and then brought it out to continue to ferment at room temperature for 4 more days, for a diacetyl rest, and now it’s back fermenting in the cooler 50–55-degree temperature. I plan on letting it ferment for at least another week – probably 2. Will check back in.
10/15/23 – I decided to bottle today as it was exactly 6 weeks since it was brewed. I plan on letting this carbonate for about 2 weeks and I’ll then I’ll test it to see how it came out. Hopefully it’s halfway decent. If it’s not, nobody will ever get to taste it. I’m mostly concerned about the temperature I laagered it at – it was in the 44–49-degree range after I gave it a diacetyl rest. I think that was due to the ambient temperature in the garage getting lower as the days got cooler.
My buddy Brian came over to help me bottle and that saved A LOT of time, especially in the washing and sanitizing of the bottles. Brian took the bottles to his house to store underneath it since it’s cooler under there and hopefully continue to laager and of course carbonate. The last bottle we filled was only about 3/4 of the way full so I’ll use that one to gauge it by in 2 weeks.
I did lose a little bit of volume in the garage as I left the valve of the spigot open when I was transferring back into that bucket for bottling. Overall, we yielded 40 total bottles with one of those being that 3/4 filled one. I figured I lost between 5-10 bottles worth. Ugh!
Anyway, I will report back in a couple of weeks to let you know how it’s coming along. Here are some pictures from today.
10/30/23 – Well yesterday was 2 weeks since I’ve bottled this beer, and I will be cracking open the first one tonight to see how it is. I did come up with the name today and it’s going to be “Don’t Lick Your Fingers Festbier Lager”. Going to work on the labels next.
11/6/23 – My carbonation has been really slow and it’s nowhere near what it should be. I should have used some priming sugar before bottling so now I will have to open each beer and add either some priming sugar or priming drops to each and recap them all.
12/10-23 – Welp this batch was an epic failure. I did finally put some priming drops in a bunch of bottles and let them carbonate for a couple of more weeks and about half of them were adequately carbonated. The ones that were carbonated still tasted terrible so alas it was a wasted effort. I will chalk this up to trial and error as it was my first lager with NOT the correct equipment. I have asked a couple of brewers for their advice and what they’ve done in the past for lagering without the proper equipment and I’ve received good information that I will use going forward.
Ultimately, I had to dump most of the beers since there was no salvaging them and I needed the empty bottles for the Caramel Brown Ale I just brewed. More on that one to come soon. I saved a couple of bottles just to see how them might be after a while, but I have no confidence that they are worth sharing.
Anyway, this is the end of this chapter, but I definitely learned something – which is only brew Ales. Just kidding, I will try again.
Cheers!
Scott