Oktoberfest is Lagering
Last weekend I brewed an Oktoberfest and get to try out my chest freezer for the lagering process. Unfortunately, the first smack pack of Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager yeast I had didn’t really seem to take off. So I ordered a second one, which arrived on Thursday. After smacking that one, it swelled up and I pitched it that night. Now, two days later, there are some obvious signs of the fermentation process.
For the chest freezer, I picked up a Ranco temperature controller on Ebay for around $50 and used an old extension cord to wire it up. At the last homebrewers club meeting, someone suggested putting the element in a bucket of water to simulate what the liquid temperature would be in the carboy. It worked perfectly. As the chest freezer turns on and off, and there’s a cooling element on the floor of the freezer, I thought it might be doubly good to put down the towel – to catch the condensation and keep the carboys from being in direct contact with the floor of the freezer.
My hope is to lager the beer in the cooler for 2-3 weeks, transfer it to new carboys, give it a diacetyl rest for a week, and transfer it into kegs for lagering for a couple weeks.
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