Tips for brewing good lager beer

A well-brewed lager beer is appealing to most beer consumers.
But there is still many home brewers that stay away from brewing lagers, despite the fact that there is a whole world of taste that extends far beyond fizzy yellow beers from industrial breweries...

Brewing lagers may seem more complicated or time-consuming, compared to ales. But with the exception of a slightly longer fermentation time, the brewing process does not differ significantly from brewing ale.

So, of course, you can brew excellent lager beer at home!


Some solid tips from us:

• Keep clean and do not neglect the brewery hygiene - this applies to all beer styles, but in a lager beer it becomes even clearer if there has been a break in the care of brewery hygiene. 
  
  
• Use enough yeast
  
  More yeast shortens the fermentation time, gives a cleaner result and a lager beer of higher quality. One package of high quality dry yeast contains many yeast cells. But it may be a good idea to consider using two packages for 20 liters of brewing volume.
  Do you use liquid yeast, but do not have the opportunity to buy several packages with a good pre-date? Make a proper yeast starter. A suitable starter volume for lagers can be around 10 - 20% of the planned brewing volume, so make sure you have a sufficiently large vessel or use a magnetic stirrer.  
  
  
• Maintain the fermentation temperature
  
  The temperature should be kept as even as possible when fermenting a lager.
  If you have a basement that maintains 10 °C year round: Congratulations! The rest of us
  can ferment in a refrigerator or freezer controlled with an external thermostat.
  
  With a little testing and calculations, it is also possible to keep a fairly cool and even temperature just by using insulation and frozen water bottles.
  
  
• Feel free to start the fermentation cool and let the temperature rise slowly
  
  If you have enough yeast and have the opportunity: start cold, e.g. with a starting temperature of 9 °C during the first days. It will take a bit longer before you notice active fermentation, but the yeast will also produce less fruity flavors as the esters production decreases at lower fermentation temperatures.
  
  After the cold start, the temperature can then be kept at around 10 - 11 °C. If you want, the temperature can be raised further in the final phase of fermentation. This is called a diacetyl rest. But if you do not have the opportunity to raise the temperature, the result will often be good if the beer is instead kept stable between 10 - 12 ° C during the entire fermentation.
  
  
• Choose a suitable fermenter - an oxygen-tight fermenter is better than one that lets oxygen through. This is especially important if you plan to age the beer in the same fermenter for a long time. 
  
  
• Let the fermentation take its time
  
  The majority of the fermentation is usually over within 1-2 weeks. But a lagers usually benefit if you give it some more time. Sulfur goes out of solution, the yeast "cleans up after itself" and the beer becomes clearer. Leaving it for up to a month is perfectly ok, as long as the vessel is air-tight so it doesn't get oxidized.
  
  
• When packing: keep the equipment clean and sanitized and do not let the oxygen in the air ruin your fine beer. You can choose whether you want to keg it and carbonate using a CO2 tank, or bottle and carbonate with a small amount of sugar in each bottle.

There is a whole world to explore of light, dark, smoky, hoppy, mild and powerful lager beers.
So now it's just a matter of getting started!