To produce an award winning lager, many steps must be performed in a specified time frame.  If you are serious about producing an incredible lager, you must devote yourself to the beer.  Be the beer.  Here's some quick tips on how to produce a darn good lager.

1. Always allow the lager yeast to kick into gear at room temperature for at least 5 hours.  We have found that if you use our protocol for acclimating dry yeast, the Fermentis S-23 Saflager yeast will begin actively fermenting in 6-7 hours post innoculation.  It is best to brew lager beers in the morning hours so that once activity begins you are awake to decrease the temperature down to 45-50 F.  If you sleep through this phase, odds are that a good majority of the lager will have fermented over night at a higher temperature.  Lager yeast that is fermented at room temperature produce esters that are not characteristic to lager.  However, this is the basis for a good steam beer.

2. How to destroy a perfectly good refrigerator in less than 30 seconds.  It is easy to manipulate a 4.6 cubic feet refrigerator into a lagering unit (just as easy as turning a trash can into a fermenting apparatus).  The prices for this size refrigerator (from Lowes) range from $100-$160.  Simply disassemble the freezer shelf, and bend the cooling coil down and to the right.  Use duct tape or strong glue to help keep the coil towards the back right side of the refrigerator.  Remove the drawer from beneath the lower shelf.  Cut two pieces of 2x8 wood to fit snug beneath the bottom shelf.  This will provide support for the weight of the 5 gallons of lager.  Use a thermostat control unit (such as the Johnson Controls Penn unit) to regulate the power to the refrigerator.  NOTE: We can special order a refrigerator thermostat for you, and plan to stock this item in the future.  Just let us know via our contact page.  When the temperature is reached, the controller shuts off the refrigerator.  We have had much success with this type of home-made lagering unit.  For an investment of around $200, you can accurately control the temperature of the lager, from fermentation through lagering. 

Note: You must use a 5 gallon carboy.  The 6 gallon carboys are 2.5 inches taller and might be too tall for some refrigerators.  Always make sure you pre-measure your carboys and the inside of the refrigerator you wish to purchase.

3.  Primary fermentation should be performed in a 5 gallon glass carboy so that you can visually monitor the fermentation.  Primary fermentation must be conducted between 45º and 55º F.   There is a ~3 degree differential on most external thermostats.  If you set the temperature for 50º F, your lager unit temperature might fluctuate between 47 and 53º F, but the beer temperature is generally not affected by these temperature fluctuations.  Attach a digital thermometer to the side of the carboy for beer temperature.  Make sure the external thermostat probe is also fastened to the side of the carboy.  Duct tape or an ace bandage works well for this. Tweak the thermostat to achieve perfect temperature.  Once the temperature is stable, you will notice less temperature fluctuation.  Use a rubber stopper with a blow off tube into a small bottle.  Place the blow off bottle on a shelf on the door.

Photo Above: The ABS Stuarts Draft Pumpkin Lager fermenting at 50ºF.  This is an example of the ace bandage wrap holding the thermostat probe and thermometer.  This was an experimental run for the recipe using a 15 pound cushaw pumpkin!  We got the OG up to 1.075 from the pumpkin mash !!!

4. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S).  If you open the lagering unit between the second and third day of fermentation, and it smells like someone cut the cheese or egged your lager with rotten eggs, don't worry, this is normal.  Believe it or not, you have a healthy lager fermentation.  Lager yeast have a tendency to produce hydrogen sulfide (H2S) during active fermentation.  If you have a fermenting wine yeast that is producing H2S, this is a problem, but not so with lager yeast, it is part of their exercise routine.  Under low nutrient conditions (FAN, YAN), or from exposure to grape sulfur treatments leaking in in from the vineyard, wine yeast, such as montrachet, will produce high amounts of H2S.  This is a winemaker's nightmare and requires daily tastings of fermenting must.  However, a lager yeast's production of H2S is usually minimal and is blown off with the CO2.  If it is not entirely blown off by the end of fermentation, it can be metabolized during the diacetyl rest, and most definitely will dissapear to non-detectable levels by the time lagering is finished. 

5. Diacetyl Rest.   Brewing yeast naturally produce diacetyl, a vicinal diketone known as 2,3 butanedione (C4H6O2).   Diacetyl is made from alpha-acetolactate which is then decarboxylated into diacetyl.   In other words, at low concentrations, it gives a slippery mouth feel to the beer, and at higher concentrations it gives off a buttery aroma, like pop corn.  This can overwhelm malt and hop flavor and aroma.  At higher temperatures (65-75º F) the yeast will re-absorb the secreted diacetyl and re-metabolize it into acetoin and 2,3 butanediol, which have no flavor or aroma character.   

6. To succesfully perform a diacetyl rest, increase the temperature to 60–70º F for 24-72 hours.  The best time to do this is when the bulk of primary fermentation has finished.  Usually, when the blow off CO2 bubbling has decreased to 5-6 bubbles per minute and the trub has settled.  Either increase the refrigerator temperature to 60º F or remove the lager from the refrigerator and let sit at a cool room temperature (65-70º F) for 24-72 hours.  Raising the temperature will not affect the lager, as the important part of fermenting with lager yeast takes place during the first 3/4 of the ferment. Then rack the lager off the lees/trub (yeast bed) into a clean carboy and decrease the temperature again back to 45-55º F for secondary fermentation (Conditioning Phase).  Often times if the yeast had enough oxygen and bio-mass during the primary ferment, the secondary fermentation stage will not experience a high degree of continued fermentation.  However, it is important for the yeast to clean up house after the party that just occured during primary fermentation.  The yeast will finish off the complex sugars (maltotriose) and breakdown metabolic by-products produced during primary phase.  This is why secondary fermentation is really more or less a conditioning phase.  However, when you decrease temperatures for lagering (cold conditioning), this is considered the secondary fermentation.  If fermentation is complete and you have done a diacetyl rest, it is safe to go ahead and drop the temperature for lagering.

7.  Autolysis is the process of the yeast naturally exploding (lysing) once critical biomass has been reached, fermentation is long over, and the yeast have gone dormant.  When the yeast lyse, they release phenolic compounds, esters, and other off-flavors into the beer.  In wine making, barrel fermented chardonnay is stored for six months on the lees yeast bed (sur lie), and stirred vigorously (batonnage), to take advantage of this natural phenomenon.  The amino acids that are released into the wine help give it an oily mouth feel.  With beer, however, autolysis is not beneficial.  Due to the higher fermentation temperatures, ale is more likely to experience autolysis than lagers. Yeast are less likely to lyse under cold conditions and less bio-activity.  However, when fermentation is over, it is important to rack the beer off of the lees yeast sediment regardless of what type of beer you are brewing, because the yeast can begin to ferment compounds in the lees/trub that leads to the production of off-flavors.  After racking, if there are still residual yeast present as sediment during lagering (lees), the likelihood of autolysis is minimal.  Therefore, we feel that an additional racking step after the secondary fermentation stage is not necessary before lowering the beer to lagering temperature.  When secondary fermentation is complete and final gravity is achieved, drop the temperature.

8.   Lagering (Cold Conditioning).  Cold conditioning of beer allows protein, tannins and other compounds to precipitate out of solution.  This produces a very smooth, clean finish that is characteristic of lager beers.  Lagering temperatures range from 32 – 40º F.  There is a simple rule of thumb for determining the proper lager temperature.  Subtract 10 degrees from the temperature at which you fermented.  If you fermented at 50ºF, lager at 40ºF.  If you fermented at 45º F, lager at 35º F.  The only other thing to consider is how long to lager.  The colder the lager, the longer it takes.  Think of it as the colder the lager, the more congealed it is, and the longer it takes for compounds to fall out.  A rock falls through water pretty fast, but then try and drop a rock into shampoo and it takes longer to hit the bottom.  Here are some quick time rules.

The next question is: if it is faster to lager at 45º F, why not?  Because at colder temperatures more compounds fall out of solution producing a smoother beer than at higher lagering temperatures.  If you want fast turnover with your brewing, always have a few ales fermenting while you lager.  Take the time and lager cold and for at least a month.  The rewards of quality lager are worth it.

9. Bottling Lager.  If you lager for more than 2 months a problem arises with having enough yeast to prime the bottle.  Evidence suggests that after 2 months, a majority of the yeast have fallen into the trub.  Low amounts of yeast cells in the bottled product means a longer time to prime the bottle.  One way around this is to make sure you siphon some of the trub into the bottling tank.  Or, another, more logical way around it is to use yeast culture from the same batch and add it back to the bottling tank.  When you rack off the trub/lees after primary, save about 1/4 cup of the trub, seal it in a zip-lock bag in the freezer.  When it is time to bottle, thaw the lees and add it to the beer with the priming sugar.  If you don't feel comfortable with this method due to sterility reasons, then just prepare a fresh yeast culture with the same yeast used to ferment.  Make sure you rehydrate the dry yeast and acclimate to adjust the yeast to the alcohol levels.  We recommend 1 tsp of dry yeast per 5 gallons of beer. 

Many believe that lager should be bottled and stored at the same temperatures at which it was fermented.  Logically this is true.  But it just takes twice as long to prime the bottles.  The amount of sugar fermented in the bottle is not enough to produce levels of esters that are detectable.  So don't worry about bottling temperature.  Bring the 5 gallons of lager up to room temperature and bottle.  Sometimes, when you bring the beer up to room temperature after lagering, you will notice a bit of residual fermentation take off.  This is normal.  The warmer temperatures redirect the yeast's attention to residual, complex sugars.  It's survial of the fittest, and can only help encourage a healthy bottle fermentation.  If you wish to long-term store the bottles at low temperature, make sure you allow the bottles to prime at room temperature first.  Crack a few of them open to make sure they are carbonated.  And most importanlty, sit back, relax, and enjoy a homebrewed lager that can blow away any commercial lager.

Cheers!

Time to start brewing . . .