Greg Hughes Vienna lager

Have had this in the fermenter for a week now,brewed and yeast pitched on Friday past with Danstar lager yeast.Yeast took until Monday to kick in @ 12° in the fermentation chamber and now smells like a hen house.
My first time brewing a lager from scratch so would appreciate any advice for primary, secondary and time.Cheers.

Gerryjo said:

Have had this in the fermenter for a week now,brewed and yeast pitched on Friday past with Danstar lager yeast.Yeast took until Monday to kick in @ 12° in the fermentation chamber and now smells like a hen house.
My first time brewing a lager from scratch so would appreciate any advice for primary, secondary and time.Cheers.

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Mornin pal,
Yeah lagers was for me a brew I had to ‘not being a seat of my pants bloke’
And once I fathom out the whole lagering approach it got prob as easy as beers!
First time with lager yeast (bottom yeast) and the lower ferm temp I was a bit sceptical...the unknown tbh!
I made a good starter!! That helped for the yeast to start at least!
I started the ferm temp at 18c soon as it took place I got it to 15c
Other recipes 12c.
Half intuition (**** word) I ramped up 5c a day til 18c for 3 days.
Racked into my SS conical..
Then ramped down 5c to get as low as I could with the fridge..one was 4c and the tall fridge 6c
Then the long wait about 6 weeks.
Bottling as normal beer process.
I was sceptical If the carb’in yp would be ok!
First few batches of Krolsch clone was hit n miss..fosters clone was bettter and all my weiss was spot on..
Hope your is going great my m8.
Bri

Cheers Bri and thanks for the advice.As it's my first lager I'm in the dark regarding fermentation as I have mine at 12° and is constantly bubbling every minute steady for 5 days but wondering how long it should take and no mention of temp stepping in the recipe.😵

Not sure if temp stepping is the brulosophy method for pseudo lager made at lower temp with ale yeast...that maybe duff info!

Clint said:

Not sure if temp stepping is the brulosophy method for pseudo lager made at lower temp with ale yeast...that maybe duff info!

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Aye it maybe!
If I read the thread properly in the first place!!
Early in morning and just saw lager!!
Sorry if caused concern people!
Anyways you know I’m not functioning!!
Bri

Clint!
I’m now confused!!!
Is it a lager or not?
If so does it say that you can lagering my way and how I learnt!!!
I’ll look at Vienna lager n if the lagering prosess actually entails.....
Heed mashed now!!!
Bri

Clint said:

Not sure if temp stepping is the brulosophy method for pseudo lager made at lower temp with ale yeast...that maybe duff info!

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Danstar lager yeast @ 12c....
Confused by you saying ale yeast!

meds! Please lol

Bri I think it's a false method of "lager" brewing where notty and some other,? Yeasts. .kolsch may be brewed at their low end temp..14..to give lager characteristics without actually lagering the brew for ages.
I used the brulosophy method for a Mexican cerveza and it turned out really good.

Clint said:

Bri I think it's a false method of "lager" brewing where notty and some other,? Yeasts. .kolsch may be brewed at their low end temp..14..to give lager characteristics without actually lagering the brew for ages.
I used the brulosophy method for a Mexican cerveza and it turned out really good.

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Hallow m8!
I’m seeing what ya saying...slowly lol..
So ya saying the brulosophy method of ramping temps up/down using the yeast that Gerry has used @12c for the Vienna is false method!
Who I my to disagree! Haha!
Not looked at the lagering for Vienna n somebody be along to shed light on this one..
And the style and characteristics of the brew all plays a part.
For me...a lager yeast as you know bottom fermenting yeast...got its temp ranges..so maybe I should of looked at the characteristics and temp range b4 I typed my response..
All is ok.
As long as @Gerrjo and others didn’t get my woffling as gospel hahaha!!
All part of a day’s work for Bri n his smashed head...
Reet off to do-in grains..
Very interesting tbh getting a bigger picture on yeast n I’ve got a long way to go to learn...
Thx pal
Bri

A trick I have used to cold crash and now for my first lager is to fill some plastic 2l bottles with water, freeze then and then pop then in the fermenting fridge to keep it super chilled. I replace them every couple of day with fully frozen bottled just to keep things chilly and as low as possible. Seems to be working well over the last week or so.

Manxnorton said:

Hallow m8!
I’m seeing what ya saying...slowly lol..
So ya saying the brulosophy method of ramping temps up/down using the yeast that Gerry has used @12c for the Vienna is false method!
Who I my to disagree! Haha!
Not looked at the lagering for Vienna n somebody be along to shed light on this one..
And the style and characteristics of the brew all plays a part.
For me...a lager yeast as you know bottom fermenting yeast...got its temp ranges..so maybe I should of looked at the characteristics and temp range b4 I typed my response..
All is ok.
As long as @Gerrjo and others didn’t get my woffling as gospel hahaha!!
All part of a day’s work for Bri n his smashed head...
Reet off to do-in grains..
Very interesting tbh getting a bigger picture on yeast n I’ve got a long way to go to learn...
Thx pal
Bri

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You weren't waffling as you were spot on as it is a lager yeast I'm using and not an ale yeast brewed at the lowest range.Been doing some research and there's loads of ways to brew this but mainly revolves around 12° with temperature ramp for diactyl rest and cold crashing.Im still trying to get my head around it but shall persevere as it's still bubbling away 👍

Gerryjo said:

You weren't waffling as you were spot on as it is a lager yeast I'm using and not an ale yeast brewed at the lowest range.Been doing some research and there's loads of ways to brew this but mainly revolves around 12° with temperature ramp for diactyl rest and cold crashing.Im still trying to get my head around it but shall persevere as it's still bubbling away 👍

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Thx m8,
Was getting confused...as you can tell.
One thing I know anyways that my lagers I’ve made for pals using the cold crashing method to the key and not lagering isn’t so hard!!
Just getting your head around all the procedures and getting them right!
Think the time takes lagering is strange for the first time...it’s the unknown!
That’s why I started with small batches then went up to 23l batches once I was confident that the lagering process actual works lol.
Mind it look me some time at one process once the temp was ramped up for 3 days for the di-whatsitchops rest! What to do next...just couldn’t get it! Until somebody said! Rack off into a secondly then start the lagering ramp down to cold temps!! Cold crashing!
It went great after that n carb’n Up as easy like normal ale etc.
Thought filtering was going to be a PITA
Later mate
Bri

I am about to do a similar lager for the first time, my question at the moment is about the yeast starter. I am going to be using WL830 and was wondering at what temp do i need to use with this making of the starter. The normal i.e. 18-22C or should it be made at lager fermenting temp of 12C

private4587 said:

I am about to do a similar lager for the first time, my question at the moment is about the yeast starter. I am going to be using WL830 and was wondering at what temp do i need to use with this making of the starter. The normal i.e. 18-22C or should it be made at lager fermenting temp of 12C

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Normal (18-22) temps. Your making a starter, not beer. :thumb:

private4587 said:

I am about to do a similar lager for the first time, my question at the moment is about the yeast starter. I am going to be using WL830 and was wondering at what temp do i need to use with this making of the starter. The normal i.e. 18-22C or should it be made at lager fermenting temp of 12C

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HAllow m8,
You’ve raised a interesting question here...
There’s bount to be somebody replying more qualified as me up soon!!
Don’t want to give you duff info and say this is gospel!
What little input I can give is this:
(FOR ME!) I normally make a starter as normal...
But as the pitching temp goes down to pitching temp..I put it on the stir plate and the temp will be room temp!
All said And done you only doing a mini fermintation in a small time frame....making the cells multiply!!
And as long as the yeast is ready to pitch into the FV with the designated temp for your yeast stain...should give the yeast a great start! Specially with a lager!
Don’t want to confuse anybody lol
I’ve done a non starter with dry yeast! But put the pitching temp above the fermintation range! To get the yeast active and then turn it down the right ferm temp!
I.e.
Proposed ferm temp 12c..I pitch the dry yeast say at 16c...for the time that takes the yeast to get active!
Then slowly turn down to 12c..
Everybody does it different and learning the yeast Stain you using and it limitations is a art in its own..
Hence why I do a lager starter!!
Takes the fanny’in on out of the equation!! Lol
Hope this helps!!
Prob not...Bri into a woffle again...
Like I said there’ll be a guru soon lol
Bri

Thanks MyQ and Bri for your helpful replies, hope you don't mind me pushing for more help. When making the starter do i let it fully ferment out or is there a time limit o the starter plate i should be looking at.