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Date: 05 Jul 2006 08:16:26
From: brian@yahoo.com
Subject: Lagering a Kolsch
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I brewed a Kolsch on Monday. I put it in the fermentation fridge at
set it to 70 to get things going. The next morning I saw it was
fermenting and dropped it down to 60 for the primary. Normally I move
to secondary once the fermentation slows down (about a week). I
suppose keeping it at 60 to finish the ferment in secondary would make
the most sense, correct? Once the secondary is done (generally another
week) I was planning to lager this Kolsch for a while as is traditional
with the style. I plan to drop it down to a nice chilly 34 and lager
for about 4 weeks. My question on this is, should I lager in the
secondary, or keg it and lager in the keg? Also if I do put it in the
keg, should I just add a bit of CO2 to purge O2 and seal the keg and
carbonate to taste later, or should I carbonate as planned for final
carbonation now and let it lager fully carbonated? Is there even a
difference? I'm thinking my preference is to keg it at full pressure
so that I can monitor the lagering process with occasional samples...
(Thats the impatient part of me speaking though)
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Date: 05 Jul 2006 10:53:46
From: Richard Kaszeta
Subject: Re: Lagering a Kolsch
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"brian@yahoo.com" <brian.sico@gmail.com > writes:
OB > I brewed a Kolsch on Monday. I put it in the fermentation fridge at
> set it to 70 to get things going. The next morning I saw it was
> fermenting and dropped it down to 60 for the primary. Normally I move
> to secondary once the fermentation slows down (about a week). I
> suppose keeping it at 60 to finish the ferment in secondary would make
> the most sense, correct?
That's basically what I do. My current overall profile is
1. 68 degrees for a day, max to make sure I'm getting good
fermentation. This can be iffy, too warm and I get too much banana
2. 64 degrees for one week in the primary (usually slightly over
halfway to the expected FG)
3. 64 degrees for one week until fermentation appears done (usually
another week)
4. Move secondary to lagering area, which is around 40-45 degrees for
a two or three week lagering.
5. Bottle or keg.
> My question on this is, should I lager in the
> secondary, or keg it and lager in the keg?
I prefer the former for a kolsch. If you do the latter, you pretty
much need to at least semi-carbonate it to keep a firm seal on the
keg, so you might as well go all the way. I don't think the
carbonation effects the lagering chemistry enough to matter.
--
Richard W Kaszeta
rich@kaszeta.org
http://www.kaszeta.org/rich
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Date: 05 Jul 2006 15:32:30
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Lagering a Kolsch
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On 5 Jul 2006 08:16:26 -0700, <brian.sico@gmail.com > wrote:
> I brewed a Kolsch on Monday. I put it in the fermentation fridge at
> set it to 70 to get things going. The next morning I saw it was
> fermenting and dropped it down to 60 for the primary.
This is a common practice, IE starting warm and then dropping the temp when
fermentation starts. However, IMO, it's not the best way to do it. Temps
are more critical at the beginning of fermentation than later. I think
it's a better idea to start the beer out at whatever your intended temp
will be. IE, in this case I would have dropped it to 60 right after
pitching instead of waiting.
> My question on this is, should I lager in the
> secondary, or keg it and lager in the keg?
Either way would work.
> Also if I do put it in the
> keg, should I just add a bit of CO2 to purge O2 and seal the keg and
> carbonate to taste later, or should I carbonate as planned for final
> carbonation now and let it lager fully carbonated? Is there even a
> difference? I'm thinking my preference is to keg it at full pressure
> so that I can monitor the lagering process with occasional samples...
> (Thats the impatient part of me speaking though)
I would definitely carbonate it if you are going to lager in the keg. The
lids on corny kegs are only designed to seal if they are under pressure.
If you just hit it with a little bit of pressure, that CO2 will disolve
into the beer pretty quickly and the effective pressure in the headspace
will drop back down to near 0. If it were me, I'll fully carbonate it
in the keg while lagering. IMO, it's not a good idea to store beer in
a corny keg without carbonation.
John.
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Date: 06 Jul 2006 00:23:51
From: Mike Mike
Subject: Re: Lagering a Kolsch
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I am measuring the fridge temp AND the carboy temp and if I do like you did,
then it is impossible for me to get the carboy temp down in the mid 60's
until the initial major fermenting is over and eventual damage is done.
My beer improved a lot after I started working on the actual beer
temperature during fermentation instead of just adjusting the fridge.
"brian@yahoo.com" <brian.sico@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1152112586.869213.152460@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...
>I brewed a Kolsch on Monday. I put it in the fermentation fridge at
> set it to 70 to get things going. The next morning I saw it was
> fermenting and dropped it down to 60 for the primary. Normally I move
> to secondary once the fermentation slows down (about a week). I
> suppose keeping it at 60 to finish the ferment in secondary would make
> the most sense, correct? Once the secondary is done (generally another
> week) I was planning to lager this Kolsch for a while as is traditional
> with the style. I plan to drop it down to a nice chilly 34 and lager
> for about 4 weeks. My question on this is, should I lager in the
> secondary, or keg it and lager in the keg? Also if I do put it in the
> keg, should I just add a bit of CO2 to purge O2 and seal the keg and
> carbonate to taste later, or should I carbonate as planned for final
> carbonation now and let it lager fully carbonated? Is there even a
> difference? I'm thinking my preference is to keg it at full pressure
> so that I can monitor the lagering process with occasional samples...
> (Thats the impatient part of me speaking though)
>
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Date: 06 Jul 2006 14:47:27
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Lagering a Kolsch
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On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:23:51 GMT, <mm@mitechhostREMOVE.com > wrote:
> I am measuring the fridge temp AND the carboy temp and if I do like you did,
> then it is impossible for me to get the carboy temp down in the mid 60's
> until the initial major fermenting is over and eventual damage is done.
> My beer improved a lot after I started working on the actual beer
> temperature during fermentation instead of just adjusting the fridge.
I use the air temp in the fridge to control the thermostat and set it to
the low 60s for a target fermentation temp in the mid 60s. I have a
seperate thermometer on the carboy to monitor the beer temp, but only
use that for visual reference, it's not connected to the thermostat.
John.
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