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beninak

beninak

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2007
385
1
0
Anchorage, AK
I'm kinda new at brewing lagers, but I know a rule of thumb for ales is that you arent supposed to let them sit in the primary for much more than 2 weeks or else they start absorbing off-flavors from the yeast sediment.

Well I'm wondering if the same applies to lagers. I know they ferment slower than ales, but my lager is at the 2-week mark now since fermentation started and I was planning to rack it to secondary today, but there is still a pretty thickhead of krausen on it (about 2 inches or so). Should I go ahead and rack it anyway or wait until fermentation starts to slow down?
 
The same isn't even really true for ales. I think the danger of autolysis from letting the beer sit on the yeast for too long is overstated in a lot of places. I've let ales go well over 3 weeks and in a few cases over a month with no ill effects.

With a lager, you should have no problems. Most of my lager ferments go 2 - 3 weeks at aobut 50°F. The key with lagers is patience. Let the beer fully finish because with a lager you usually want that clean, crisp finish and if you stop the fermentation prematurely, you won't get that. You can even consider raising the temperature to about 60 just to let it finish all the way. So let it go for as long as it takes, then rack it to secondary and slowly lower down to lagering temperature. I recommend a minimum of 6 weeks lagering.
 
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