Cold Lagering Begins

After one week in the freezer, the batch of Pre-Prohibition Lager has reached 32 - 33 ºF. Now it just needs to stay at this temperature for six weeks before bottling.

With chest freezer plugged to the digital temperature controller, I stepped down by 4 º F each day. With a 1 ºF range, the fermenter will drop to 32 ºF and cool from 34 º F as needed.

With my 7 Bridges Organic Pre-Prohibition Lager finally settled in at the optimal cold lagering temperature of 32 º F to 33 ºF, now it is just a matter of waiting six weeks for cold conditioning to complete before bottling. The temperature controller is a pricey little piece of hardware, but has performed flawlessly up to this point.You turn the chest freezer to its lowest cooling setting, then plug it into the temperature controller and set the cooling point you want. With a one degree variance, for example, the freezer kicks on whenever the temperature probe reaches 34 ºF, and shuts off the freezer when the probe reaches 32ºF. Very slick. I wish I had two of these.