German Octoberfest

[CrealCritter]

Day 5 - still chugging along... Good things come to those that wait.

Bottom of the carboy

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Looks great!

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 7 - Head is just starting to fall, this means fermenting is starting to complete. I kind of figured it would take 10 to 14 days to finish fermenting.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 8 - fermentation still going... I made up a nice little climate controlled environment for this Octoberfest out of a small but free deep freezer, that I cleaned up and painted (it was a mess, but nothing some elbow grease and paint couldn't cure) and a nice digital temperature controller that came along with all the brewing gear I paid $50.00 for.

The ideal temperature range for this lager yeast during initial fermentation is between 50F to 59F. Although my basement was right around 55 degrees, with the weather warming, its not going to stay that way very much longer. I have the controller set to 55, it kicks on the deep freezer when it hits 57 and shuts the deep freezer off at 52, pretty cool little controller. It also has heat setting, so I could use it as a controller for a turkey egg incubator also, which I plan to do eventually. I plan on lagering this Octoberfest 4 to 6 weeks at @35 degrees in my new old free little chest freezer.

The wire running down to the carboy through the hole I drilled in the chest freezer is the temperature sensing probe.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 9 - still chugging and getting a bubble through the air lock about once every 8 seconds. At 55 degrees this lager yeast really likes it cool.

I can see this yeast creates sticky trub in the bottom of the carboy. It should make for a good clean syphon into the secondary when the time comes.

 

[baymule]

You do so many interesting things.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 10 - still fermenting in the primary.

 

[CrealCritter]

You do so many interesting things.

I'm just easily amused, motivated by curiosity.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 11 - Diacetyl rest, when primary fermentation is about 80% complete, you need to "Diacetyl Rest" the beer. This is accomplished by raising the temperature to approximately 10 degrees higher than your fermentation temperature. Hold this temperature for a minimum of 48 hours.

This does a couple of things for you:
1) most importantly, it allows time for the yeast to clean up after itself by removing the chemical Diacetyl that it produced during cold fermentation. Diacetyl produces a buttery or butterscotch flavor in your beer
2) it ensures fermentation is completed. This is very important as you want fermentation to be completed, before you start the long lagering phase.

I fermented at around 55 degrees, so I need to raise the temperature to at least 65 degrees. It'll most likely take a day or so to lift the temperature of this 5 gallons of beer to room temperature. So I'll most likely syphon into the secondary Saturday or Sunday. Moved out of climate controlled space into a warm room that sees no sunlight.

Lager yeast is a lot different than ale yeast. It takes a lot more time and there are more steps involved. But its worth it to produce a great tasting smooth lager.

 

[sumi]

That looks like a really nice dark beer..