Primary Smell Changed

[STiKY]

Brewing a honey lager. Basement temperature is a bit on the high side for a lager about 57 degrees.
Frementation started slowly and I repitched the yeast on the day after brewing because I was afraid I had thermal shocked the first batch (got the wort way to cold to quick). Started fermenting just fine and smelled amazing coming out of the airlock. About a week in now and I'm getting some sulfer smell from it now. No where near as nice as it was.

Quick questions.
Think it's ok?
Should I rack to secondary?
Should I move it to garage maybe 42 Degrees in there?
Should I just leave it alone and bottle it in another week or so once fermentation has died down?

[Chris Alvey]

I'm pretty sure the sulfur smell is standard issue for some lager yeasts. When it gets close to done, raise it to 60-something for a few days for a diacetyl rest and I bet the yeast will take care of the sulfur compounds as well.

[STiKY]

I racked it to the secondary today and brought it upstairs for a diacetyl rest. Then off to the garage in a couple days for some lagering. Any suggestions on how long to lager? I know I should keep it as cold as possible and I'm contemplating packing it in snow inside a larger container but since this is my first lager I'm sort of flying blind. Any suggestions on the rest of the process would be greatly appreciated.

-Jared

[Chris Alvey]

Oh, I would guess 4 to 6 weeks maybe ... dependent on how much yeast settles in your secondary. Anyone else have a more learned guess on lagering times ?

[STiKY]

Another Question:

If I lager for a significant time at cold temperatures will there be enough yeast in suspension to ensure proper bottle conditioning?

[Chris Alvey]

I think the answer is 'maybe.' If it has conditioned for a long time, you might be safe in pitching some lager yeast but, according to Palmer, it isn't necessary. From How to Brew (online):

Ninety five percent of the time there is no difference between priming for lager beer and priming ale. But once in a while you will need to add fresh yeast for priming and carbonation purposes. This is most common when the beer is given a long cold lagering for more than two months. If the beer is very clear at bottling time, then the majority of the yeast may have settled out and there may not be enough left to carbonate the beer in the bottle. Prepare some fresh yeast of the same strain and mix it with the priming solution when you rack the beer to the bottling bucket. You will not need as much as you originally pitched to the wort, only about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of slurry for 5 gallons.

Since the yeast is being added for carbonation during the storage phase of the beer, there are a couple of differences in procedure from that used to ferment the original wort. Grow the yeast at the temperature you will be carbonating and storing the beer at (usually room temperature) instead of the original pitching temperature. This will produce more esters than the yeast normally would, but the percentage of sugar that is being fermented for carbonation at this stage is so small that the added difference in taste is unnoticeable. The reason for doing it this way is to avoid thermally shocking the yeast and to speed up the carbonation time. It is not necessary to store the beer cold after lagering. The beer can be stored at room temperature without affecting the taste of the beer.