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How the fuck did I ferment and lager with my ghetto ass setup you ask? Well, I purchased a Grainfather fermenter and glycol chiller. It’s become painfully obvious over the past few months in the brewery how important consistent fermentation temp is.

I’ve been wanting to make a lager for a few months now and did some research on a good starting point for this time of year and the Vienna Lager seemed like something that I’d be able to pull off and would be a great beer for this time of year.

So, first thing first, here is my recipe

And here are my notes from creating the beer.

I changed things up so that I didn’t use my kitchen at all. I heated up my mash and sparge water outside -- it was barely 30 degrees out, so maintaining my temp targetswas a little tricky, but I mostly managed.

After a drama free brew day I fermented the wort in the Grainfather at 52 degrees for approximately 2 weeks, increased the temp to 65 degrees for 2 days (my diacetyl rest), and then brought the temp down to 39 degrees (the lowest temp possible) to lager for 4 weeks. And my samples on canning day tasted great. I surprised myself.

What was notable about this brew session?
* My gravity was much higher than I planned for -- I estimated 65% efficiency for my brew house and achieved 71% instead, so my OG was high and my FG was lower than planned too -- Even though my abv is off, I’m super happy that I was so efficient on my brew day and that fermentation went great.
* I used a Grainfather fermenter and glycol chiller so that I could ferment and lager at low and consistent temperatures.
* I made a goddamn lager.
* I was also able to take samples throughout the process to understand how the beer was evolving. I definitely noticed a maturing of the beer as early in the lagering process there was some green apple flavor that concerned me and was no longer there after 3 weeks of lagering.

What pleasantly surprised me?
* The Grainfather was super easy to use and clean. Being able to take samples and change/monitor temperature is a game changer. It feels like a real brewery.

Why can’t I officially call this my first good batch of beer?
* As I mentioned above my abv came in much higher than I hoped for. I believe that as I get used to the new equipment I’ll get better with my calculations.

I’m so excited about how this beer is tasting and looking. It’s something I designed from scratch. Made on my own. Monitored and made adjustments throughout fermentation based on samples. It finally feels like everything I’ve been learning and planning is finally starting to pay off. I’m going to do a lager again next. This time it will be a schwarzbier. I’m looking forward to it!