Carboy

86'ing the Trub

Heading deep into cold storage

From Carboy

In the two weeks since my brew night, my yeast has been very active. I left the blow-off tube on for about three days. There was so much bubbling and foam in the Bavarian Helles that when I replaced it with an airlock the bubbles continued through most of the primary fermentation stage, even at a cool 53 degrees.
 
Before I could begin my secondary fermentation and the lagering phase, I wanted to make sure that I could elimnate any of the diacetyl that built up and would have normally been processed by a warmer ale yeast. Homebrewing guru John Palmer recommends a 24- to 48-hour diacetyl rest at the end of primary fermentation for a lager. I can't stand butterscotch, I don't want the butterscotch sweetness of diacetyl in my beer, especially a lager. I let the beer warm up slowly over a couple of days, which hopefully did the trick, then I racked it into the secondary fermenter.
 

From Carboy

I carefully siphoned the beer into the glass, 3-gallon carboy, doing my best to avoid transferring any of the spent yeast. As you can see, a ton of trub collected in the bottom of the plastic carboy. I wouldn't want any of that introducing off flavors into the beer.
 
Now that it's switched over, I popped the Helles into my lagering fridge, where I'll gradually lower the temperature to about 44 degrees. It will sit there for four weeks, and then I'll be ready to keg. The anticipation will be hard to bear.
 
While I'm waiting, I should probably have a beer.

By Tom on 07/05/2013

Stage: Secondary

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