Lagering again

[greenxpaddy]

Its that time of year where day and night temps make lagering outside a possibility again....Make sure you seal your lagering vessels well to keep out critters and check they don't freeze solid!

Here's my step up brew to a full batch of pilsener lager to be ready in Feb

I really liked the Schwarzbier I had in Berlin. I'm using WLP800 just because I know that yeast will be good for the full batch I'm planning. Alternatively you could use German Lager Yeast.

Schwarzbier 2013


Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Munich Malt 20 EBC 5 lbs. 8.1 oz 2500 grams 38.5%
Floor Malted Pils Malt 4 EBC 7 lbs. 11.4 oz 3500 grams 53.8%
Carafa Special III 1200 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 3.1%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 1.5%
Crystal Malt, Pale 60 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 3.1%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Saaz Whole 3.3 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 80%
Saaz Whole 3.3 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.9 oz 25 grams 20%


Final Volume: 30 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 5.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 46 Litres
Mash Liquor: 16.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 85 %
Bitterness: 28.3735757612236 EBU
Colour: 119 EBC

Mash temp 66.5c

Fermentation 12c. DR at 18c. Storage at 1-5c for 2 months.

Bottled, primed with brown sugar and conditioning yeast (WY3944). I find wy3944 settles out really well, which is a bit crazy for a beer that is supposed to be cloudy.

[weiht]

Will the Saaz be too spicy and out of style for a Schwarz? I'm looking to brew one as well

[greenxpaddy]

Don't think so if it's not too late or too much... Maybe I should move it to 15 mins?

[Rookie]

Will the Saaz be too spicy and out of style for a Schwarz? I'm looking to brew one as well

No, several years ago I brewed a schwarz pils that came out great.
I did use sterling, but sterling and saaz are very close in taste.

[seymour]

Will the Saaz be too spicy...

I suspect the black-peppery spice would blend beautifully with the chocolate malt. Mmmmm...

[greenxpaddy]

In the end I used hellertauer hersbrucker for the low aroma. All the saaz was used for bittering. Sluggish fermentation chugging slowly along, worryingly a bit slow for me. But it not ideally pitched. 1.054 to 1.040 day 6.

[zgoda]

I guess at ~28 IBU and thanks to cold maturation the spicy flavour of Saaz will mellow and nicely complement the roast from black malt.

[greenxpaddy]

Day 8 1.033 going well. Will rise to 18c in a day or so for the diacetyl rest.

[greenxpaddy]

DAY 9 1.030

Need 1.024ish before getting to room temp so I guess another two days

[Highlander]

I like the sound of this, But have no real idea how to brew a lager.
At what point in the ferment do you do the DCR?
When largering can I do that in a cornie? do you carbonate at this stage? or just leave it flat?
Is it a case of once it gets to 1014 you rack it and then leave it in cold storage?

[greenxpaddy]

Diacetyl rest at around 65% of fermentation, so depends on OG and expected FG.

Then when FG reached rack off yeast and store flat unprimed at near to 0degrees. In corny would be ok but make sure it doesn't pressurise if yeast continues very slowly emitting co2

[Highlander]

Diacetyl rest at around 65% of fermentation, so depends on OG and expected FG.

Then when FG reached rack off yeast and store flat unprimed at near to 0degrees. In corny would be ok but make sure it doesn't pressurise if yeast continues very slowly emitting co2

Thanks. Think i'll give a lager or Pils a shot for my next brew.

[greenxpaddy]

Am glad to report the very cold early spring was perfect for lagering and my pilsners are crystal clear. not sure about at fridge temps but i don't drink them at that temp. I used yorkshire square yeast to prime as it settles really well gluey to the bottom of bottles.

[greenxpaddy]

Can report that the bottles primed perfectly and even at high carbonation the Yorkshire yeast does not lift off the bottle bottom = a clear lager....with flavour. A1