Primary ferment temp. wyeast 2112

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uuurang

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Got a AG chugging along in a bucket in basement. wyeast says 2112 maintains lager chatacteristics below 65°...

"2112 California Lager Yeast. Particularly suited for producing 19th century-style West Coast beers. Retains lager characteristics at temperatures up to 65° F, (18° C) and produces malty, brilliantly clear beers. Flocculation - high; apparent attenuation 67-71%. (58-68° F, 14-20° C)"

The yeast was pitched on to wort in the 80's, then quickly cooled down to 68°. Bubbling started within 6hrs and temp maintained at 68° for the vigorus portion of ferment. As it slows down the temp lowers to low 60's.

All the temps are from a stick-on therm strip on the side of a brew bucket, so I'm sure the temp on interior is higher than what showed up.

Soooo....the question is, will this beer be missing the lager-characteristics?
What do others do?, Drop primary into water bath to maintain lower ferment temp...leave in lagering fridge for primary? I thought lagering was done after "high" temp primary ferment slows down and then is racked to secondary. Please school me.
 
Turned out to be best beer so far. Served at a graduation party in June. Many people commented that it did not taste like homebrew they've had before, that it was good. Ha!

As I type, I have a Oktoberfest beer with 2112 fermenting away at 60. Started out ferment at 63 for 4 days then dropped it to 60. I should have started it out at 60 then raised it to 63 towards the end to ensure full ferment. Also, this malt bill was considerably darker than the previous batch.
 
i think the lower you have it towards 58f range, the more traditional German lager characteristics you'll have, higher in the 65f range might be a bit more Bohemian, i.e, fruity in nature. remember that the yeast will produce heat of 5-10f degrees during fermentation, so you may want to low-ball the temperature to off-set added fermentation temps; perhaps start it at around 60f and drop it to 55f if your setup allows.

ja, to lager is to leave the beer (racked off from the yeast cake in the primary) in a secondary fermenter at increasingly low temps ala 33f as the ultimate temperature. W/ this particular style of yeast, i've heard both "yea" and "nay" concerning bothering w/ a lagering schedule. i suggest you experiment and see which results you like best w/ a side-by-side small batch experiment. Generally, all brews will "clean" up more if you lager them; the question is, is it necessary? only your personal preference will decide, so do a small batch experiment.

the darker wort/speise for an Oktoberfest isn't a problem. some chalk in the boil to stabilize pH and you're good!

just, if you're bottling this brew, be VERY careful about where you store it to bottle condition! it's a high-flocc yeast and therefore, by the time you bottle it (lagering or no) much of the yeast has dropped out of suspension. i've only used it once and i wasn't careful in this area and hence, got an extremely sour acetaldehyde ruined beer out of it. the taste tests of it (a Dunkel) pre-bottling were great but there simply wasn't enough yeast to properly convert the priming sugar into CO2 and hence, the plethora of acetaldehyde.
 
just, if you're bottling this brew, be VERY careful about where you store it to bottle condition! it's a high-flocc yeast and therefore, by the time you bottle it (lagering or no) much of the yeast has dropped out of suspension. i've only used it once and i wasn't careful in this area and hence, got an extremely sour acetaldehyde ruined beer out of it. the taste tests of it (a Dunkel) pre-bottling were great but there simply wasn't enough yeast to properly convert the priming sugar into CO2 and hence, the plethora of acetaldehyde.[/QUOTE]



Just joined the forum so was happy to find this .. been brewing beer for 11 months and on my 24th beer... but this one is the first lager so thought I 'd do the Californian Common style using the Wyeast 2112. Because I will be lagering fir 4 weeks I have decided to referment with the new Fermentis yeast Safbrew F-2 which is specifically designed as a yeast for bottle/cask coditioned beer. As it claimed to be very neutral I thought it might be an excellent choice ... will keep you posted..Mig
 
I know this is an old thread, but I'm curious how everything turned out. Brewing with 2112 currently.
 
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