Paradise Fest Brew Session

Mash target at 152, hit temp very closely at 152.1, and doing 90 minutes for a more fermentable wort for this lager. Took off the insulation and stirred the mash thoroughly after 60 minutes, once I finished stirring, I insulated the mash again and it settled in at 148.8 for the final 30 minutes...preboil OG came in .001 heavy, should be very close to plan after the boil. Finished with 6 gallons at 1.059, a point high. Beautiful light gold beer, nice hop flavor and aroma. Kicking off fermentation at 50F, wort was 51.9F when I pitched two packets of rehydrated Cellar Science Weihenstephan Lager yeast that I tempered with wort. Pitched at 5:00 PM, hoping for a strong start to fermentation in a few hours. Fermentation had begun before midnight last night, chugging along this morning (Tuesday) and the fridge is working hard to keep that temp from rising. I raised the temp to 65 on Monday 02/24/25 and did a forced diacetyl test today 02/26/25, when heated, the beer still gave off the aroma of diacetyl while at fermentation temps it wasn't perceptible, so I'll raise the temp to 68 and let it rest for a few more days to clean up. I chilled the sample and tasted it, I got the barest hint of diacetyl, but it still tasted good. I'll test again before moving to secondary and cold conditioning. Gravity reading today was 1.012. Tested for diacetyl again on 03/05/25, came out clean and the sample tasted great after chilling, and gravity had dropped to 1.010, so I moved to secondary and placed the 5-gallon carboy in my garage fridge, bottom drawers and shelves removed. I'll lager for a few weeks (at least 4) before bottling. 04/07/2025 added gelatin to the beer today, I'm planning on bottling on Wednesday or Thursday. Bottled this lager today on 4/10/25 and I ended up with 55 bottles of very clear light gold Festbier. Sample tasted good, carbed to 2.3 volumes, will test a bottle in 2-3 weeks to see how it turned out. This beer ended up at the upper limit for the style in ABV at 6.2 but seems to hit the mark for a Festbier.