First Lager Fermentation Baby Pictures

Lager yeast fermentation has begun, and boy, does it look weird!

Looking like the inside of a lava lamp, my first batch of lager is bubbling the airlock every 45 seconds after 30 hours at about 54º F in the "cellar" crawlspace.

The photos are a bit grainy as shot with my ancient iPhone's camera and side-lit by an LED flashlight, but you can see the strange and beautiful formations beginning to lace through the top of the primary fermenter. Carbonation is starting to happen, but I can't tell if these blobs are the yeast, large cold break proteins, or some kind of bacteria. The temperature is slightly on the high end of the desired range at 54º F, with 50º F the preferred primary fermentation target, but I hope things will work out.

With a temperature control unit on order from More Beer, I have cleared out our chest freezer in the garage for the secondary/cold lagering phase in ten days to two weeks time.