Lager question...

[Robert Biasetti]

So, made my first lager recently and the primary ferment is winding down. Its in a diacetyl rest currently. I plan on lagering it for at least 3 weeks. My question is: when the beer is ready to be bottled, will I have enough yeast to force carbonate? I ask because I'm concerned that the lagering process will cause the yeast to drop out of suspension. I've read that fresh yeast can be added at bottling time.
Thoughts???

[edevarennes]

I doubt you'll have a problem with the bottle fermentation unless you filter the beer.

[Robert Biasetti]

Thanks, that's encouraging.

[edevarennes]

If you're really worried about it, you could add a small amount of yeast at bottling. Since you've already lagered it, you could use a neutral ale yeast in the bottle. A packet of dry yeast (Safale us-05?) rehydrated in warm, dechlorinated water added to the bottling bucket along with the priming sugar should do the trick. Many breweries prime their bottles with a neutral ale yeast, which is why you often can't make clones with yeast from bottles- It's not what was used to ferment the beer.

[mikebiewer]

I'm actually coming up on the bottling of my Pilsner I made about 8 weeks back.

Its probably been under the steps a lil longer. I wasn't able to get the temp down much. Its been at about 50 degrees for a month now. So we'll see how it turns out. Anyway, I'm just going to do the same old bottling I do every time. Which is DME and water, mixed in with the beer.

I can report back and see how it worked. Planning on bottling this weekend, and testing in a couple of weeks. That should be about 3 weeks, right about the time you'll be bottling?

Mike

[twitt]

I'm about to attempt my first lager. I worked with Mark Szamatulski (author of Clone Brews and owner of Maltose Express LHBS in CT) for about 2 hours a few weeks back to come up with a clone of Victory Prima Pils. It was really cool watching him come up with numbers/ingredients for each element. Anyway, my basement is about 55-60 at concrete level, so I was debating fermenting there versus in a refrigerator... what do you guys think? Mark recommended to start it on the basement floor for a couple days to get it going, then throw it in the fridge for a month or so. Sound about right?