Safbrew S-23 Lager yeast

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

morrowboarder

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Started a German Oktoberfest the other day. I pitched of dry lager yeast and kept the temps at around 70°F. I'm quite impressed with how active the fermentation is, considering how high the temp is.

005.jpg
 
Should be an interesting beer, but you've done some things that will make it 'untraditional'.
Lager yeast ferments best at cooler temperatures, typically in the 45-55 range depending upon the strain. S-23 is a wacky one, and a little more ale-like than most traditional lager yeasts. So, you've started fermentation much warmer than should be done, even with this strain. The hot temperature is probably why you've had such a vigorous fermentation so far.
Lager yeasts ferment slower and cleaner, and are stored cold, lagered, to clean up the fermentation off flavors and byproducts that they produce. The warm fermentation is probably going to produce a lot of these that will be tough for the yeast to clean up.
I'll bet it turns out really tasty, and in the end it will still be beer. It just may not be exactly what you were aiming for.
Good luck, and enjoy the fruits of your labor in a couple of months or more.
 
I knew lager needed cooler temps to ferment properly, but I didn't know what the side-effects would be in my case. The active part of the fermentation that produces CO2 has come to an end (2 days in). Now I fear for the gravity and the clean up process. There also was a pungent smell of sulfur coming from the airlock, but I heard that is typical for lager yeast. My question is; can I cool the temps to improve conditions for the beer? Also, how can I regulate the temp to around 45 - 55? My girlfriend would freak out if I turned the thermostat that low. Thanks for the information!
 
Sulfur smell is normal.
Too late to save the beer, the majority of the flavor has been developed in the first couple of days of fermentation. Cooling now may help a little bit, but you aren't going to end up with a lager beer or anything like a traditional Oktoberfest.
Search 'swamp cooler' on here for ways to cool, or there's some mention of methods in Papazian's and in Palmer's books.
 
Nice, thanks a lot for the advice and information guys. I guess I got too excited to do this type if beer and didn't look deeper into it. I normally brew ales and didn't know this was going to require lager yeast until I already bought the supplies. So I asked myself what's the worst that can happen? Next time Ill do an ice bath or another alternative. When does the sulfur smell go away? Do I need to rack to secondary with this one?
 
Nice, thanks a lot for the advice and information guys. I guess I got too excited to do this type if beer and didn't look deeper into it. I normally brew ales and didn't know this was going to require lager yeast until I already bought the supplies. So I asked myself what's the worst that can happen? Next time Ill do an ice bath or another alternative. When does the sulfur smell go away? Do I need to rack to secondary with this one?

The sulfur smell will go away after lagering. Rack it to secondary (or into a keg) and put it at fridge temperatures (35-40 F) for about three weeks.

You'll end up with some ester flavors because you used lager yeast at ale temperatures. Some brewers do this deliberately: see Anchor Steam for a commercial example. I had a beer come out similarly recently when my fermentation temps were higher than I wanted. Even though it wasn't what I was trying to make, it was a very tasty beer.
 
Good stuff. Now that the CO2 producing stage has completed (for now) how long should I wait to rack to secondary? I imagine I want the beer to sit on the cake for a few weeks? Should I just take the primary and place it in an ice bath now?
 
a little over 2 weeks in the primary and I checked the gravity - 1.012. The OG was around 1.055.

I sneaked a little taste from what was in the graduated cylinder. To be honest, there was hardly any taste. The smell of alcohol overwhelms anything else that might be there. I steeped the wheat, added 6lbs of munich malt extract, boiled the hops for 55 minutes and the aroma hops for 5 minutes at the end. Doesn't taste bad, but not good either.

I figure I'll let it sit in the primary for another week or so. But if I check the gravity in 3 days and it's the same, any suggestions? What can be done now to add a little flavor?
 
What can be done now to add a little flavor?

Your description sounds like what I would expect from trying to make a lager at ale temperatures.

Time might help reduce the off flavors. You might consider racking it to a glass carboy and letting it age for a month. You might consider embracing the alcohol flavor and soaking some oak or hickory chips in whisky for a day and then adding that to the secondary. Or perhaps dry hoping.
 
Yeah, not too shocked by the outcome of this. I don't think I will dry hop. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm thinking of infusing a small batch of mild-medium roast coffee extract. I work at a commercial coffee brewer manufacturer and know how to extract "the good stuff" out of coffee without hitting the point of bitterness. Large satellite brewers are known to brew this way to meet large volumes in a matter of minutes.
 
Hey I know this thread is a few months old, but I'm curious as to how the beer turned out, if you've tried it yet. I've brewed a Marzen-style hybrid with s-23before and it was awesome, I've got my 2nd one in primary now. I'm also curious about the coffee addition, being a professional roaster myself. How would you extract the good stuff? I think the roasty flavor would go well with this style as long as ou didn't over-do it, I've ruined a stout by doing that
 
I guess I shouldn't say "good stuff", but rather the concentrated part of the brew that keeps out any bitterness. As you well know I'm sure, the first 30% of the brew is the strongest with the most solubles. Closer to the end of the brew cycle, you're adding slight bitterness to the batch. Anyway, I didn't infuse the batch with coffee, I added orange peel. It turned out not good. Very bland and had some taste of cardboard. I believe this was due to the fact my inexperienced friend who helped out was vigorously stirring the hot wort to cool it faster, which is a definite negative in the brewing process. I gave the whole batch to him.
 
Back
Top