time for lager?

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
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gr_baker
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time for lager?

Post by gr_baker » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:58 am

Hi All,

it's getting cold outside and lacking a temperature controlled fermenter my thoughts are turning towards trying to make a lager, something along the style of Pilsner Urquell. I'm thinking of putting my FV in the shed or garage where the temperature varies between 5 and 14C at the moment. This isn't ideal I know but the alternative is the kitchen which varies between 18 and 22C.

My question is about starting the fermentation. I will definitely make a yeast starter but should I pitch at 20C or so after I have cooled the wort and then move straight to the shed or should I leave it in the kitchen for 24 hours to allow the yeast to get going?

Russell.

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Aleman
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Re: time for lager?

Post by Aleman » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:11 am

How big a starter you can make determines what temperature you can get away with pitching.

If the weather is good on Friday I am planing on doing an 80L batch of Pilsner . . . I will be pitching at 9C and probably using around 200g of dried yeast . . . If I was using a Whitelabs I would have made a 25L batch the day before and then pitched that into the main batch.

If you can get about 200ml of slurry that would be fine for a 25L batch pitched at around 12-15C, which you can then cool down over the next 36 hours.

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