My third beer was my first German style lager. It was also the point at which I had to invest more money into my home brewery setup. 'Lagering' requires long term storage in cold temperatures. The lowest temperature in my house is around 65 degrees but I needed temperatures significantly lower than that for both fermenting and lagering. I invested in a cheap Hotpoint chest freezer, 5 cubic feet. It is just large enough to drop a 5 gallon plastic fermentation barrel into it. I then invested in a dual-stage temperature controller, which is essentially a bypass that will turn your freezer on and off based on a temperature range you establish with the controller. For fermenting I needed temps between 50-58 degrees, and for lagering/conditioning I needed temps between 32 and 40 degrees. The freezer cost ~$225 and the temperature controller cost ~$50. I also invested in a cheap hand held bottle capper, and bought some 22 oz bottles. The reason I did this is to see if the bottle capper provided a better seal than the swing tops I had used on my first two beers. I noticed on the second beer I brewed that they seemed to go flat more quickly, and I'm assuming it is because the swing-tops aren't truly air-tight, allowing oxidation to occur.
I started this beer in early January 2023, with the goal to have the beer ready by my brothers birthday in early March. Following are my notes:
1/12/2023 - Brewing Day
For this brew, I used an extract kit from Northern Brewer... the 'Maypole Maibock'. It comes with 6 lbs of Pilsner malt syrup, 3.15 lbs of Munich Malt Syrup, 1 oz of German Perle Hops, and for yeast I used Omega - 111 German Bock. At the beginning of my 60 minute boil I added the Pilsner malt syrup and the German Perle Hops. At the 10 minute mark I added the Munich malt. After boil was completed, I needed to get the wort down to 70 degrees as quickly as possible. It had snowed out the night before, and I thought I could just sort of bury the mash kettle in the snow and that it would cool quickly. This really did not work, and cooling the wort took a little over an hour. In the future, may go back to my lobster pot method, because the longer it takes to cool wort, the higher the risk of introducing unwanted bacteria. I was probably ok because it was so cold outside. After wort was cooled and yeast added, my starting specific gravity was 1.064. I then moved the chilled wort into my fermenter, capped it, put in my airlock, and then dropped into my chest freezer to get the temperature down to a consistent 55 degrees
1/28/2023 - Primary Fermentation Complete, Diacetyl Rest
Specific gravity, 1.017, for an ABV of 6.17%. At this point, it was time to bring the beer up to room temperature over a few days to allow for Diacetyl Rest. A diacetyl rest is a fermentation step used to eliminate a common beer off flavor in lagers. This diacetyl flavor in higher concentrations can make your beer taste like butter or butterscotch.
1/31/2023 - Diacetyl rest complete, move to secondary fermenter, begin lagering/conditioning. Lager temperature was maintained at a consistent 36 degrees for three weeks.
2/18/2023 - Added 'Super-Kleer', which is a gelatin based agent that effectively helps clear the beer.
2/21/2023 - Bottling Day
The Super-Kleer worked well, the beer is a nice clear amber color. Taste and smell of the beer was fantastic. If I had to compare it to a typical german lager, I would put it somewhere between a Hofbreau and a Paulaner lager. Transferred everything to a bottling bucket, added priming sugar, and began bottling and capping. First review of the hand held bottle capper is that it's a piece of junk. The cap magnet fell out after bottle number two... and it is difficult to keep everything stable and level while capping. I think I'll try a bench capper next time. This batch produced 12 ea 22 oz bottles, and an additional 7 liters. After bottling was complete, I put them back in their cases and left at room temperature for a two week conditioning/carbonation.
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