I brewed a Helles lager this past weekend using Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager. I'm using a temperature controller on a chest freezer to maintain 48 deg for fermentation, and I had airlock activity 24 hours after cold pitching a 2L starter. So I feel good on this front.
Once fermentation is complete, I'd love to take advantage of all that yeasty goodness for something else. So I'm considering racking the Helles to secondary after fermentation and then using the yeast cake to ferment an Oktoberfest. Problem is, I would then have two vessels requiring temperature control and only one fridge in which to do so.
I would therefore have to maintain fermentation temps (48 deg or so) for the Oktoberfest until it's done and then bring both brews down to cold lagering temperatures simultaneously. This means there would be about a 2-3 week delay between the end of primary fermentation and cold lagering for the Helles. Is there any good reason why this would be a bad idea? Since I've already put so much time and effort into building up healthy yeast for my Helles, I'd love to get as much mileage out of it as I can.
Thanks in advance. Prost!
Once fermentation is complete, I'd love to take advantage of all that yeasty goodness for something else. So I'm considering racking the Helles to secondary after fermentation and then using the yeast cake to ferment an Oktoberfest. Problem is, I would then have two vessels requiring temperature control and only one fridge in which to do so.
I would therefore have to maintain fermentation temps (48 deg or so) for the Oktoberfest until it's done and then bring both brews down to cold lagering temperatures simultaneously. This means there would be about a 2-3 week delay between the end of primary fermentation and cold lagering for the Helles. Is there any good reason why this would be a bad idea? Since I've already put so much time and effort into building up healthy yeast for my Helles, I'd love to get as much mileage out of it as I can.
Thanks in advance. Prost!