Diacetyl Rest

I'm making my first lager right now. Its been in the primary at 46-47 for 3 weeks now. I was reading on the web page of the LHBS I go to (mainbrew.com) that you can do a diacetyl rest by bringing it back to the mid 60s to finish the primary. It says that its more trouble than is worth. Opinions?

rferguson61 said:

I'm making my first lager right now. Its been in the primary at 46-47 for 3 weeks now. I was reading on the web page of the LHBS I go to (mainbrew.com) that you can do a diacetyl rest by bringing it back to the mid 60s to finish the primary. It says that its more trouble than is worth. Opinions?

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Bringing it up for a diacetyl rest more trouble than it's worth? I don't see how. Having a butter bomb would definitely be far worse than raising the temperature!

I'd do the diacetyl rest, even if it wasn't a strain of yeast that was a notorious diacetyl producer, and then rack and begin the lagering phase.

No harm will come to the beer by doing a diacetyl rest as a matter of course, but not doing one may be a big mistake.

I feel so bad whenever I see someone posting a "Help me with my butterbeer" thread. It really convinces me that D-rests are well worth it. Until you know your yeast strain very well, it is cheap insurance.

A d rest it is then! Thanks!

I'm on my first lager too. I'm planning on a d rest. With a temp controller, it's pretty easy to just raise the temp for a few days.

Some say that starting low and keeping low will prevent the D, while starting high and dropping the temp will require a D-rest.

Either way, there is not reason to fear doing one. Having a buttery lager is just not a good beer.

For myself, I cooled my starter to fermentation temp, and chilled the wort down to fermentation temp right after brewing, then pitched and kept at fermentation temp the whole time and skipped the d-rest and went straight to lagering. I don't detect any buttery flavor.

I do think I taste some fruity flavors that I think came from underpitching. Next batch is a light lager. Building an American Yeast strain now. Much different flavor expectations than the Oktoberfest I brewed as my first lager.

When you do a d rest do you slowly raise the temp or do you just pull it out of the cold?

rferguson61 said:

When you do a d rest do you slowly raise the temp or do you just pull it out of the cold?

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I just set the controller to 68*F and let it warm naturally. It still takes quite awhile to fully warm up, like 24 hours or so depending on the ambient temps. I see no reason not to do the D rest and it's really no trouble. It only requires patience like most other aspects of brewing.

Catt22 said:

I just set the controller to 68*F and let it warm naturally. It still takes quite awhile to fully warm up, like 24 hours or so depending on the ambient temps. I see no reason not to do the D rest and it's really no trouble. It only requires patience like most other aspects of brewing.

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I dont have a controller...i have a wine fridge lol. So should I just shut it off and let it climb back to room temp by itself or turn it down little at a time until its back to room temp?

rferguson61 said:

I dont have a controller...i have a wine fridge lol. So should I just shut it off and let it climb back to room temp by itself or turn it down little at a time until its back to room temp?

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I would just turn it off. AFAIK, there's not advantage to allowing the beer to warm more gradually.

I've always been told that ideally you should preform your D-rest before primary fermentation is complete; as I understand it should be started with about 1/3 to 1/4 of primary fermentation remaining.

That being said, I had an experience fermenting an Oktoberfest where I performed the D-rest with about a 1/4 of primary fermentation remaining, but even after a week I still perceived a little butter taste. I proceeding with lagering and racked it to bottles. When I later tried a bottle and noticed no dicetyl; seems like the bottle conditioning is where by D-rest actually occurred.