Greetings. Hard to explain so in the interest of brevity... My temp in the primary was about 78 when I pitched. Normally I wouldn't pitch this high but there was a problem with my thermometer which I only found out later when I checked it against another. I pitched the yeast at about 7:15 pm. I put it in a 67 degree closet overnight. There was bubbling in the fermenter the next morning at a pretty decent rate and I immediately moved it to the 50 degree cellar at 7:15 am. This is a German Pils. Did I cool it in time? I plan to leave it in the cellar for two weeks at 50 then lager around 38 for a month. Thoughts?
Pitched too high but cooled quickly... Thoughts?
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It is really not the best practice to pitch a lager warmer than 50F, mid-40's is better...so my thoughts would be that you're in for an estery/off-flavor Pils. You can let it ride and see how it turns out, but pitching at 78F really only exacerbates the pitching warm problems. Next time for a lager:
-HUGE starter
-Full aeration/oxygenation
-pitch around 46F
-Let rise and hold at 50F until finished. You can warm up to 60F after 5-6 days for a diacetyl rest, but it shouldn't be necessary if you follow these steps
-HUGE starter
-Full aeration/oxygenation
-pitch around 46F
-Let rise and hold at 50F until finished. You can warm up to 60F after 5-6 days for a diacetyl rest, but it shouldn't be necessary if you follow these steps
+1
g-star said:
Thanks for the feedback. Is there anything I can do now that will help abate or mellow these potential off flavors? i.e. longer or shorter time in primary after active fermentation has subsided, longer lager time? Temperature suggestions? Any ideas would be appreciate. Thanks again.
I'll bet your lager turns out ok. Lager yeast are very forgiving. The other posters give solid info for brewing lagers. Chris White from White Labs recommends pitching lager yeast at 60-65 and then chilling the fermenting wort to desired fermentation temps. I brew mostly lagers. I pitch at 60 and then chill to 50 within 12 hours.
Agree with the D-rest suggestion, that will mitigate some problems. I'd warm it up to the low 60's when you get to 1.020.
Pitching a lager warm is recommended if you are under-pitching. If you have healthy yeast and the right starter plan, it is to the benefit of your beer's ultimate flavor to pitch cold. This is the well known and widely used Narziss method.
Best of luck.
Pitching a lager warm is recommended if you are under-pitching. If you have healthy yeast and the right starter plan, it is to the benefit of your beer's ultimate flavor to pitch cold. This is the well known and widely used Narziss method.
Best of luck.
An update on this Pils. Thanks all for your contributions. I've had a few pints of this brew. I can honestly say it is very good. I followed all advise here and did a d-rest. I tested for diacytel after a few days of rest and still detected slight amounts. I gave it an extended d-rest and tested. I sensed there was still some present but I went ahead and put the secondary in 38 degrees to lager for a month. I racked to the keg and let sit for an additional two weeks. I don't detect any estery off flavors that I feared after pitching the yeast too warm (I did discover that the thermometer I was using was reading 20 degrees cooler than the actual temp, which explains why I pitched to warm). Thanks all for the help and I'm glad to say it worked out! Thanks.
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