Lagering in bottle and carbonation drops (and intro - 1st post)

[Craig Howard]

Hi all.

Craig from Auckland, NZ.

New to brewing ( 3rd brew) ... and also first post to this forum.

Brew 1  was an American Pale Ale, (Williams Warn)

Brew 2 a Premium Draught (BrewTech , Citra hop tea)

...and now... a Bohemian Pilsner lager ((Williams Warn/Saflager, Citra hop tea) is fermenting nicely at 15 degrees and almost ready for a D-rest.

Cant report how they taste because none are ready yet unfortunately.

Straight into a question about lagering in bottle and use of carbonation drops. (Various readings elsewhere have confused me a little with conflicting advice due to kegging, carboys, 2ndary ferms, racking etc.)

Any reason for it not be this simple for a new home brewer learning as he goes?

My intention after D rest and fining was to simply add the carb drops to the 750ml bottles ( wire tops) and go straight into the lagering fridge for 6-8 weeks.  Then to store normally at cool room temp till indulging time.

Th e alternative may have been to bottle without carb drops...lager for a period..then add  in some carb drops  for final conditioning.  (Wire tops would make this easy)

Any advice and thoughts will be appreciated.

Cheers

[Dan]

Hi Craig

A couple of things would be:

• 15deg a tad on the high side for fermenting a lager, 10 better. Can the W/Warn get down to those temps?
• When fermenting at low temps the beer will retain some carbonation so you may find carb drops over carbonate your beer. (You will have to trial and error this one). I prefer bulk priming with corn sugar for this reason(more control).
• If you cant drain the yeast from the w/warn and larger in the vessel(ie a conical), or decant  the beer to a secondary fermenter for lagering then Id just bottle it with carb and let it bottle condition. Id let it carbonate at room temp first(maybe a week) then store in a cool place for a month. Not traditional but the beer will taste OK

[Craig Howard]

Thanx Dan

12-15 deg was  advised as ideal for Fementis Safflager yeast  but the temp  range is larger than that.

Next time I will try a lower temp. 10 would have been difficult for me because I was working with ambient temperature and a temp controlled heat pad.  ( Worked great and absolutely constant at 15 ).

I am in the process of building a fermenting chamber so that I will have cooling control in timefor the warmer months in Auckland.

My first brews I am trying to keep mostly  "baseline" so that I can learn and have reference point for following brews.

[Dan]

No worries, having re-read your thread I think I misunderstood. I thought you were using a Williams Warn brew machine(which I have no experience with), but think you meant you were just using their kits.