Standard Lager 310809

[mysterio]

Yeah, my sample was completely diacetyl free.

Are you taking the ferment temp quite low with that pitching rate Aleman?

[adm]

Not a good idea to attempt a diacetyl rest in the way you suggest . . . it won't really work, you need to raise the temperature at the end of the primary fermentation while there is a lot of active yeast suspended and fermenting . . .. Having said that I don't think W34/70 throws a lot of Diacetyl anyway . . . but I do tend to pitch on the heavy handed side (110g in my last 80L pilsner) so that might explain the clean ferments I get

Ah....fair enough. So could I rack the beer off the yeast, and then do a diacetyl rest in secondary - or does it need to be done on the primary yeast cake? Or am I better doing the rest, then racking it to a secondary to lager ?

[Aleman]

Mysti - I try and pitch at or just below fermentation temp which for my last lager was around 9C . . . IIRC Fermentis recommend 200-300g per Hectalitre . . . which does seem awfully high to me . . . still it started quicly enough and was clean.

Adm, you are best doing the rest before racking to secondary . . . although as I said I think W34/70 is fairly clean anyway

[196osh]

IIRC Fermentis recommend 200-300g per Hectalitre . . . which does seem awfully high to me . . . .

That would mean you could have to pitch about 10 quids worth of yeast for a 5 gallon batch.

[mysterio]

Yeah that's for the lower temperature, the yeast you need gets exponentially higher the lower you go.

One last dried lager yeast question while we're here... with my liquid lager starters I always get the starter to the same temp as the wort before pitching because i've read the differential can shock the yeast... do you do this with dried yeast? Or do you just rehydrate at the ~23C, pitch into the cold wort and call it good

[196osh]

I was planning on pitching 2 packs into my lager (21l, OG:1056) whenever I make it.

Mr Malty says 2.1. So I assumed that would be fine. Should I be thinking about pitching more?

[mysterio]

The pitching rate calculator works great, two packets is fine for fermenting at 10C.

[196osh]

Sounds good, now wheres my job so I can fill my 150 bottles,

[adm]

Well, I'm back from a trip today, and just checked the lager. It's at 1014 now, so I've jacked up the temperature to 18C for the weekend for the diacetyl rest.

It's tasting good though - I can't actually taste any butteriness.....but I'll give it a rest anyway.

ANybody know, if I brew an Imperial Pilsner this weekend, is there any issue with leaving the Standard Lager in the fridge at 10C or so with the Imperial until that ferments out (probably 2 weeks), and THEN dropping the temp to 2-4C for lagering of both batches at the same time?

[Barley Water]

That should not be a problem at all, I do that sort of thing all the time. Currently, I am working on an Octoberfest and a Belgian Blonde. I brewed the Octoberfest first and let it ferment at 48F for two weeks then transferred it into the secondary. I then brewed the Blonde which I started at 64F and ran the temperature up over the week to 70F (and because of cold space limitations, the Octoberfest went along for the ride). I freed up a keg in my serving frig so I racked the Octoberfest into the keg (after cleaning it out of course) and put it into my serving fringe (which is about 40F, give or take). After getting it cold, I then force carbonated it and now it will sit for awhile. Since I want to see how good, bad or indifferent the Octoberfest is, I plan to pull off a few bottles for competion this weekend (and store all the bottles in the frig until they need to be entered). I would really rather lager them much longer but the deadline is coming up so I guess I will just have to see what happens.

For whatever reason, it seems like I am always moving beer around and doing production scheduling, usually because I want to enter a particular beer in a competition. In another week or so, I plan to bottle and cork the Blonde which will give me cold space room again at which point I think I'll do a Belgian Dubbel (one of these days I will get this style right but so far, no luck). After that, I want to do a Belgian pale ale (since the Antwerp yeast is now on sale) and then it's time to lager since I have enough ales brewed to keep me in beer until at least Christmas. Let's see, I would really like to make a Munich Dunkel, a CAP, a German pils (a first for me) plus I have a really good formulation for a Robust Porter I have not made in a couple of years. That's the problem with this hobby, so many styles, so little time and cold storage space. Oh yeah, I also want to make a Heffe and a Dunkelweizen and all this stuff needs to be ready to go by say the middle of February, I'll never make it.

[adm]

I hear you BW.....so many beers, so little time!

Amyway...I kegged the bulk of this this afternoon and it's now lagering at 2C. Tasted bloody lovely.

I had a few litres left over, which I bottled, but I'm conflicted as to how to treat them as I primed them with table sugar. Should I leave them at room temp for a few days to carbonate and then lager, or just bung them in the cold straight away. I'm just worried that if I chill them down, the yeast won't eat the sugar.

[196osh]

Leave them in the warm.

My lager didn't carb at all for the 1st week, when i put it straight in the fridge.

[adm]

Leave them in the warm.

My lager didn't carb at all for the 1st week, when i put it straight in the fridge.

That's what I thought! The lager yeast should eat the sugar quickly at 18C, so I'll leave them in the house for a few days, then bung 'em in the fridge to condition.