I brewed my first lager (a doppelbock) about a month ago and I'm thinking about bottling it in about a week. I followed some advice from my LHBS on the proper schedule for a lager that I now question the validity of (after reading a book on lagering), but below is the odd schedule I followed (all degrees are in fahrenheit).
1 Day - 60 degrees
1 Week - 50 degrees
Switch to secondary fermenter
1 Week - 50 degrees
1 Day - 65 degrees for diacetyl rest
Dropped temperature about 5 degrees per day until reaching 37 degrees and holding for 3 weeks
The OG was 1.079 and it was down to 1.030 after the first 7 days. Obviously, I'll check the gravity prior to bottling, but assuming it's on target, should I do anything special before bottling? I intend to prime and store the bottles for at least three weeks at about 65 degrees before drinking.
How do I know if the beer still contains enough yeast to carbonate the beer? If I do have to add yeast, how much should I add for my 5 gallon batch? Is there a formula for determining this? Should I use the same strain (WLP838) I used during primary fermentation? Does 5 Oz. of priming sugar sound like the right amount to use for priming?
