Begin the Lager!

Well I couldn't wait any longer, had to get the beer off the primary fermentation, and begin the secondary (lagering) phase of the beer.

Carefully siphoned the beer into a 6 gal carboy, leaving the sediment behind. Checked the specific grafity, and it was at 1.005, had to taste it too, just to get an idea of the finished flavor. It tastes great, can't wait till it clears, and then gets bottled. It will make a great Oktoberfest Dunkel, it has a dark amber color. Not totaly brown, but close. I have the digital thermometer in the fridge, and it is currently at 56.3 degrees, I wanted to start off at a warmer temp for a day or two, to let the residual yeast get used to the lower temps, then I will gradually reduce the temp down to about 45 hopefully by the end of the 3 weeks (this is how a lager is produced), then if I can I will try to get the temp down under 32 at the very end to reduce cold haze.

Next is just a lot of waiting, and time to buy bottles. I heard from two different camps on the topic of bottle color. One says that they prefer the dark brown colored bottles to protect the beer of course, the other camp prefers the clear bottles, so you can see what the beer looks like before you open the bottle. I can see the reason for the clear bottles, and the dark colored bottles. I'm not sure which way I will go, but I will probably go with the brown bottles. Oh and get a bottle capper too.

Want to try your hand at brewing beer, go for it, it is easy.