I've been actively following the site for about a year now and have become a "leave 'em on the yeast in primary" believer for my ales. I've seen steady quality improvement using a 3-4 week primary with no secondary unless I am dry-hopping.
I am branching off into lagers again (haven't made one in over 10 years) and had a couple of questions:
Question 1 - Leave it on the yeast for Clean Up?
I am building a Stella-like recipe. I'm looking at 1.048-50 OG, using Safelager S-23. I am looking at approximately 10-12 days of primary ferment (55F) followed by 3 days at 65F.
My question is about what to do after the diacetyl rest. Do I rack to secondary immediately, or would my beer benefit from going back down to 55 for another week before moving to secondary and lagering?
The answer to question 1 may change question 2. But here is what I have for now.
Question 2 - Ferment/Lagering Schedule
Today is 10/3/10. I am targeting a 10/9/10 brew day with hopes of serving this beer to family and friends on Thanksgiving Day 11/25/10. I think it gives me plenty of time, but I wanted to run my proposed ferment/lager schedule by the collective knowledge base and get some feedback.
1. Brew/chill/pitch (2 packets of S-23, re-hydrated). Target pitching temp, 65F. (10/9)
2. Drop temperature to 55F once I hit full krausen. (10/10)
3. Primary ferment at 55F (10/10-23)
4. Ramp temperature to 65F for diacetyl rest (10/23-25).
5. Bring temperature back to 55F for a few more days of yeast clean up. (10/25-30).
6. Cold Crash then rack to secondary for lagering (10/30-11/14)
7. Rack to keg for force carbonation and additional lagering (11/14-25)
8. Happy Thanksgiving! (11/25)
I am considering 2 possible changes.
Change 1 would be to eliminate step 5 and just cold crash and rack off the yeast after the diacetyl rest.
Change 2 would be to combine steps 6 and 7 and just lager in the keg. My only concern there is yeast flocc. I could cold crash after the diacetyl rest, but how much yeast should I expect to drop out in the secondary (during lager)? Do I need to secondary for at least a week to drop the remaining yeast out of suspension before going to the keg? Or am I OK to just cold crash after the D rest and count on pulling a pint or 2 before Thanksgiving Day to suck any yeast out of the keg?
I am not worrying about oxidation, so multiple transfers are OK if it makes more sense in cleaning up the beer. I'll do all transfers under CO2. And I have a big family. We'll be together for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With all the pro and college games on tap, I expect my dad, uncle, cousins and I will float this one before the weekend is out. This is not going to be around long enough for the long term effects of oxidation to set in.
I am branching off into lagers again (haven't made one in over 10 years) and had a couple of questions:
Question 1 - Leave it on the yeast for Clean Up?
I am building a Stella-like recipe. I'm looking at 1.048-50 OG, using Safelager S-23. I am looking at approximately 10-12 days of primary ferment (55F) followed by 3 days at 65F.
My question is about what to do after the diacetyl rest. Do I rack to secondary immediately, or would my beer benefit from going back down to 55 for another week before moving to secondary and lagering?
The answer to question 1 may change question 2. But here is what I have for now.
Question 2 - Ferment/Lagering Schedule
Today is 10/3/10. I am targeting a 10/9/10 brew day with hopes of serving this beer to family and friends on Thanksgiving Day 11/25/10. I think it gives me plenty of time, but I wanted to run my proposed ferment/lager schedule by the collective knowledge base and get some feedback.
1. Brew/chill/pitch (2 packets of S-23, re-hydrated). Target pitching temp, 65F. (10/9)
2. Drop temperature to 55F once I hit full krausen. (10/10)
3. Primary ferment at 55F (10/10-23)
4. Ramp temperature to 65F for diacetyl rest (10/23-25).
5. Bring temperature back to 55F for a few more days of yeast clean up. (10/25-30).
6. Cold Crash then rack to secondary for lagering (10/30-11/14)
7. Rack to keg for force carbonation and additional lagering (11/14-25)
8. Happy Thanksgiving! (11/25)
I am considering 2 possible changes.
Change 1 would be to eliminate step 5 and just cold crash and rack off the yeast after the diacetyl rest.
Change 2 would be to combine steps 6 and 7 and just lager in the keg. My only concern there is yeast flocc. I could cold crash after the diacetyl rest, but how much yeast should I expect to drop out in the secondary (during lager)? Do I need to secondary for at least a week to drop the remaining yeast out of suspension before going to the keg? Or am I OK to just cold crash after the D rest and count on pulling a pint or 2 before Thanksgiving Day to suck any yeast out of the keg?
I am not worrying about oxidation, so multiple transfers are OK if it makes more sense in cleaning up the beer. I'll do all transfers under CO2. And I have a big family. We'll be together for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With all the pro and college games on tap, I expect my dad, uncle, cousins and I will float this one before the weekend is out. This is not going to be around long enough for the long term effects of oxidation to set in.