Steam beer fermentation

Plan on doing a steam beer for my 2nd brew. I bought the kit at my local brew store, his recipe suggest the begin fermentation at 66 to 70 degrees for 5 to 7 days. Following that period, rack to 2nd fermenter and then move to cooler 54 to 60 degree and let ferment for 2 weeks or til finished. My question is, can I love in primary and just move the fermenter? I racked to a 2nd on my first brew and seemed like an unnecessary step and reading this forum seems most don't. Wasn't sure if I needed to with a steam beer due to the lager yeast. Thank you

For most ales, moving to a secondary isn't always necessary. But if you plan to use lager yeast (and thus ferment at higher than normal temps for the yeast strain), you may find some off flavors come about if you leave the beer on the yeast cake too long.

Personally I have not done a steam beer yet, but I think most would recommend a separate secondary vessel for traditional lagers.

I've brewed two steam beers and i fermented much cooler for the first part. Around 60 if not a little less. You can go as low as 50 with the San Fran lager yeast but 60 is good for a steam beer. You will get off flavors closer to 70 and the beer temp will be even Warmer than that. I didn't do secondary or change my temp.

Hawkeye21 said:

Plan on doing a steam beer for my 2nd brew. I bought the kit at my local brew store, his recipe suggest the begin fermentation at 66 to 70 degrees for 5 to 7 days. Following that period, rack to 2nd fermenter and then move to cooler 54 to 60 degree and let ferment for 2 weeks or til finished. My question is, can I love in primary and just move the fermenter? I racked to a 2nd on my first brew and seemed like an unnecessary step and reading this forum seems most don't. Wasn't sure if I needed to with a steam beer due to the lager yeast. Thank you

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Historically speaking, you wouldn't necessarily need to. (For those unaware of the history, Steam beers are lagers that are done without refridgeration. The most common is the California Common, which was a warm-fermented lager made known [though not necessarily made popular] through the California Gold Rush, when refrigeration was basically not a thing. They were considered cheap and poor quality beers, but a number of craft brewers have recently begun experimenting with them. This is not to say that they are cheap beers anymore. In fact, personally, I value the experimentation which home and craft brewers are doing with steam beers... as it's a form of experimentation which doesn't follow the very underwhelmingly commonplace "I want to make X style, but with a ton of hops" model.)

Now, while there isn't really a ton of detail as to whether people pulled the beer off of the trub with a Steam beer, it should be noted that people almost always pull the beer off of the trub for lagers... and in many cases, homebrewers pull the beer off of the trub for ales, as well. That said, many people DO leave beer, mead, or wine on the trub/lees, and get some nice flavors. It should also be noted that the Steam beer was an "ease of production" style of beer... and that the original brewers may have feared exposing the beer to the air via another racking for fear of contamination.


Generally speaking, removing the beer from the trub will make your beer more palatable. Adding oxygen to your beer post-fermentation will make you beer less palatable. If you're going to only keep your beer sitting for a month or so, I'd say to leave it on the lees. If you're going to leaving it sitting for 3-4 months (from pitching date), I'd suggest racking it off of the trub and filling the remaining space in your fermenter with CO2 (popping a CO2 canister for a pellet gun in/above your container can help displace oxygen with CO2, if you lack any method of spraying CO2).

If you're looking at a time period between the two, I'd suggest either doing whichever you prefer, or BOTH. You can rack 50% off of the trub, leave 50% on the trub, and see how it goes. If you do this, many would LOVE to hear your tasting notes on the two beers (Myself included).

Sog

I read recently that the fermenters were partially submerged into the bay to keep temps low. Might just be story.

The main reason lagers are transfered off the yeast into a secondary is the extended time the beer is fermented. With a CC your fermentation times are pretty much the same as an ale. I've done a couple CCs and put all of them in secondary, mainly to add dry hops and/or wine soaked oak chips but you should be fine leaving the beer on the yeast as it will only be a couple weeks. It wouldn't hurt to do a diacetyl rest for a couple days, once it's real close to terminal gravity, before cold crashing it.

One last question with bottling and conditioning when my brew is finished. Can I condition the bottles at the same temp or move 70 degree temp like you would an ale? Thanks again for the help, I'll post updates along the way.

70 is fine

adamdillabo said:

I've brewed two steam beers and i fermented much cooler for the first part. Around 60 if not a little less. You can go as low as 50 with the San Fran lager yeast but 60 is good for a steam beer. You will get off flavors closer to 70 and the beer temp will be even Warmer than that. I didn't do secondary or change my temp.

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I don't think it qualifies as a "steam beer" fermented at 60 and under......... I'd call that a lager myself.

H.W.

Might be true but I figured with external temps at 60 my fermenter will be closer to 65 during peak fermentation.