Home Brew Forum

After seeking advice from the fine members of Jim's I embarked on my first ever lager today.

23 litres final volume

Lager Malt: 3.860Kgs
Crystal Malt: 88g
Torrified Wheat: 176g
Rice: 264g (Over-cooked then added to mash along with cooking water; many thanks for the help with this chaps).

Saaz: 3.8%AA 60g for 90 minutes
Saaz: 3.8%AA 30g at power out

1 x Protofloc for 15 minutes

Yeast will be: White Labs WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast

Mashed @ 66c for 90 minutes

Boil will be 90 minutes too.

Some pics:

Mash Temp.


PH checked after 10 minutes


Run Off into boiler.


Hot Break.


Rolling boil so first hops added.


Boiling away as I type; I will add more pics as I go.

Any advice on pitching temperature would be most welcome!
Should I pitch at 20c to get it started then lower to around 12c? Never done this so not really sure.

The IC is in and the cold break is starting to show itself...


After a further 10 minutes cooling the break material wants to escape!


Left to settle and then started to run off into the FV...


The filth!


Hydro reading SG1.048 a little higher than expected as I boiled off a bit more than planned for.


Yeast is now pitched and the FV has been put to bed.

Should I pitch at 20c to get it started then lower to around 12c? Never done this so not really sure.

Yeah thats exactly what I did and it worked fine. Leave it at 12c for 2 weeks then as close to freezing for as long as you can manage. Should be easy enough in this weather, winter is the perfect time to make lager

jonnyhop wrote:

Should I pitch at 20c to get it started then lower to around 12c? Never done this so not really sure.

Yeah thats exactly what I did and it worked fine. Leave it at 12c for 2 weeks then as close to freezing for as long as you can manage. Should be easy enough in this weather, winter is the perfect time to make lager

Cheers for that; perfect timing as i'm just about to run off into the FV. I ferment in a converted fridge so temperature control is not a problem (I hope!). I was going for 5 days at 12c then 2 days at 18c for a diacetyl rest, then back down to 12c for another 5 days before lagering at 0c for a few weeks before bottling. Does this sound right?

sounds good. then leave the bottles warm for a week then at 0c for as long as you can

Starting to ferment now, so will transfer to fridge at 12c in the next hour or so. I'm getting excited now; this is my first lager and all seems to be going to plan! Mind you, plenty of time to cock it up yet.

Looks like I was wrong! I thought it was fermenting but now it looks like it was not. Not a thing has happened in the 30 hours since pitching the yeast. I've asked for advice here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=38084 if anyone has any ideas?