Things went fairly well yesterday, all things considered. I made certain to clean every possible item I could think of, and then cleaned others as I went along that I had forgotten about. In fact, I probably ended up cleaning everything twice, but that's better than none at all. I was a bit shy on my finishing volume (as you can see by the picture) so I'm certain that the alcohol content will be a bit higher than expected. How MUCH higher, however, I won't be certain of because at some point while taking my starting gravity I managed to break my hydrometer, and not having a spare on hand, have no idea of the starting gravity.
After getting the beer into the carboy and into the cooler to ferment away at about 50°F, I had everything addressed. Or so I thought. Nothing like waking up at 5am to the realization that I had stuck an airlock on the carboy instead of a blowoff tube. I normally ferment in my 14 gallon conical, so I never really think about it, and I don't often do lagers. I ran downstairs HOPING that the fermentation hadn't yet started (after all, it had only been about 10 hours since I pitched), and luckily it hadn't. I grabbed my blowoff hose, doused it in sanitizer and rigged a bucket of sanitizer for the output side. When I got home today the bucket was full of bubbles and a nice yeast head had started, so I"m knocking wood that I haven't forgotten something else.
2 comments:
I've never made a lagerbier before, but have been considering it the past few weeks, especually at the cellar is a bit cool this weather. Not cool enough for "proper" lagering, but at a good lager fermenting temperature right now.
Will you be lagering your helles?
Absolutely. I figure about 2 weeks at 50°F, then a few days at room temp for a diacetyl rest (no esters in lagers!!!) and then cold crash to about 34°F for a few months. I'll probably do the crash in a keg and let it naturally carbonate.
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