Lagers with the water in Orange

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:04 pm

Does anyone cut their water with RO when brewing lagers? I'm doing a Munich Helles this weekend and will be simply be using a carbon filter to remove the chlorine. I was thinking of using RO water for 25% but wanted to see what others here do first.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:13 am

If it's a lager with no dark grains, then yes, I cut with about 50% distilled water. If it's a dark lager, then I don't bother.

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:52 am

Thanks Derrin - I'll do exactly that. I better start saving up the water now - RO is slooooooow.

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:05 am

I finally checked my mash pH for the first time this weekend and was surprised to see it right at 5.3. I checked the pH about 5 minutes after mashing in. I'll probably do 50/50 RO and carbon filtered water from now on for light lagers. My efficiency was a little high so I had to dilute with some water (almost a full gallon!) but in the end everything worked out fine. Hopefully I didn't screw with the IBU's too much.

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:53 am

So here's another question for you experienced lager brewers. My Munich Helles was pitched 10 days ago at 48, ferment temps have been steady at 52d and I checked the gravity last night and it was 1.013 with a blip every 10 seconds or so. Starting gravity was 1.048.

My plan on was to wait until the end of the week when I think the yeast might start falling out of suspension (it's still pretty creamy yellow right now) to do the d-rest. Based on the gravity, I'm already at 72% attenuation and this strain has a 68-76% attenuation. So I'm pretty much in the ballpark area.

Would I be missing my 'window' the plenty of yeast still in suspension now if I did the d-rest or do you think I should just stick to my gameplan. BTW, the hydrometer sample tasted really good and I didn't pick up any diacetyl but that's not to say it's still not there of course.

Thanks.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:58 am

By the numbers it looks like a d-rest would be fine now. I usually wait 14 days but I don't really check gravity along the way like I should so it sounds like you're ready.

BrewMasterBrad · Post by **BrewMasterBrad** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:32 pm

If you pitched at 48 and had plenty of yeast, you may not need a d-rest. It also depends on the yeast strain, but I have never done a d-rest (I pitch cold with plenty of yeast) and I have never been told that my lagers have diacetyl and most of my contest awards have been from lagers. I generally just leave my lagers in the primary for a month, then rack to a keg for lagering. Most of my light lagers are ready to drink right away using this method. Of course, your mileage may vary and it won't hurt to do a d-rest if you feel like you have to.

Post by **brahn** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:43 pm

The secret is probably in your longer primary, Brad. My understanding is that the yeast will clean up the diacetyl at the lower temperature, they just do it faster at higher temps. I'm lazy, so I'd probably follow Brad's model.

BrewMasterBrad · Post by **BrewMasterBrad** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:52 pm

brahn wrote:The secret is probably in your longer primary, Brad. My understanding is that the yeast will clean up the diacetyl at the lower temperature, they just do it faster at higher temps. I'm lazy, so I'd probably follow Brad's model.

What are you trying to say Brent?

The method I use requires less worry about temps and less racking from vessel to vessel. I guess it is the lazy way, but it makes a good lager. I even use CO2 to push the beer from the chest freezer into the keg. No heavy lifting.

Post by **brahn** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:13 pm

Hey, there's nothing wrong with being lazy. I'm fairly pragmatic when it comes to this sort of thing, I'm not going to put in any extra effort unless it's actually going to make a better product. I think homebrewers tend to do a lot of things based on tradition more than anything else and I'm too lazy for that.

I've never brewed a lager and didn't know that you don't really need to do a d-rest if you let it go longer in primary. That's just the sort of thing I'm talking about. Most of my beers sit in primary for a month anyway.

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:07 pm

Yeah I may just let it sit since I really didn't taste any diacetyl. I was looking through my notes and the first time around I didn't have diacetyl problems with this particular strain but I did have a pronounced DMS flavor which was most likely due to a wimpy 60m boil. I've since learned it's best to boil the crap out of any mostly pilsner based recipe and so far, no real big DMS flavor.

I've got a lot of things going on right now so I may just let it sit as is for a while and check again in another week.

This one looks to be a tasty beer!

Oskaar · Post by **Oskaar** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:27 pm

One of the things we do in winemaking is to add some yeast hulls and agitate the wine(beer in this case) to suspend the yeast hulls, then let them attract and adsob off flavors, spent yeast, etc in suspension, then let things clear and rack.

Cheers,

Oskaar