Lagering Questions

[Eskimo Spy]

I'm going to do my first lager in the next two weeks, and I had some questions...

Here's the recipe:

9.25 lb. German Pilsner Malt
0.25 lb. Crystal Malt 10°L

0.50 oz. Northern Brewer bittering @ 60 mins.
1.00 oz. German Hallertau bittering @ 60 mins.
0.25 oz. German Hallertau flavoring @ 10 mins.

Wyeast 2042 Danish lager yeast

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When I pitch my starter slurry into the wort, I plan to have the slurry at 45°F and the wort at 50°F, so...

1. How do you cool the wort down to that temp? Should I cool it with my IC, then put it in the primary and put it in my chest freezer and drop the Ranco down to 50°F, then wait and pitch once it's down to proper temp?

2. How do you know whether or not you need a diacetyl rest? I've read Palmer's chapter on lagering, but I saw nothing telling me when to do it or not do it, only how and if "fementation or pitching conditions require it."

Any other bits of wisdom on my first lager would be welcome as well.

Thanks!

[DarkWing]

Dear Eskimo,

Don't sweat the minor temp. differential, bring the yeast temp up to 50-52'F, where you should probably start fermentation anyway if not a little higher.

Mark & Karl are better lager brewers and they'll chime in and give you even better advice. As long as you don't shock your yeast by a large temp. change, it will adapt pretty quickly.

[kking]

I do as you stated in item one. My chest freezer is set at 34 and usually gets 5 gals to 50 degrees over night. I take the starter out of the refrig and let in warm to 49-50 and then pitch. I oxygenate before pitching. I don't do diacetyl rests, but they are done near the end of fermentation. Just let the fermentor temp raise to 67-69 for 2 days that will give the yeast enough time to do their job. Then lower the temp to lager, I lager at 34.

[Eskimo Spy]

Thanks for the info.

I'm going to try to get the wort temp down to 50°F, then pitch the ~50°F starter slurry into the wort, and put the primary into the chest freezer set at around 48°F, watch for primary fermentation to wind down, give it a diacetyl rest at 60°F for 48 hours, then lager it at 35°F for 8 weeks.

Does this sound like a good plan to everyone?

One other question; I know I need to make a starter for this, and I'm not sure how large a starter to make. I think a 1 quart starter using 1 cup of DME should put me at about 1.040, then let that go until fermentation is over, put it in the fridge overnight, pour off most of the spent wort, whirl it a bit, and then pour it in the aforementioned cooled primary.

Does that sound about right?

Thanks again, I'm hoping to make it out to the Saucer on the 3rd, we'll see if my plan works out...

[gwbbc]

That will work perfectly fine. If you want a little more specific measurement, an excellent source for pitching rates is
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Hope to see you at the meeting.

To chime in on the original process, I have had my best success fermenting lagers at 48-52 and leave it there for 3-5 weeks before reducing to 34 then keg and lager for 2-4 additional weeks before carbonating. Time will allow for clean up and eleminate the need for a D-Rest.