Diacetyl Resting a CC with WLP810

[robertus]

Hi Gang,

I brewed Yooper's Anchor Steam clone on Sunday afternoon. Didn't do a starter, nailed the O.G. (1.050), pitched at ~60 degrees. Fermentation began in earnest about two days ago (Monday night), and temps are holding steady in the swamp cooler at about 60-61 degrees (ambient temp is a steady 69-70).

I was doing some digging around, and noticed that some folks (including Yooper herself) suggest doing a 24- to 48-hour D-rest with this strain. I haven't done a D-rest before (all ale, all the time), so wanted to make sure I've got the right idea. I plan on leaving it in the primary for the full 3 weeks rather than digging the secondary out of the crawlspace. So, here's what I'm thinking:

1. Wait until bubbling has slowed down a bit
2. Take hydrometer reading to verify that I'm at ~80% of FG
3. Take bucket out of swamp cooler, leave in ambient temps
4. Pace around the living room for two days
5. Put bucket back in ~60-degree swamp cooler
6. Let sit for two weeks at ~60.
7. Bottle!

Does that sound about right? Is this sort of step even necessary at these temperatures? Am I overthinking this?

 

[DrawTap88]

Doing a D rest never hurts. Your plan of action looks pretty easy and will work just fine. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[robertus]

The gravity reading was right around 1.020 (maybe a smidge lower) this afternoon, so I've dumped the swamp water and have the fermenter sitting at room temperature. The beer tasted pretty good, with no hint of "creamed corn" to suggest a diacetyl problem, but I understand that flavor tends to crop up later (and, like you said, doing a D rest never hurt anything). Figure I'll refill the cooler with water and frozen bottles Tuesday morning or thereabouts, and let sit for a couple of weeks until bottling day.

Plus, maybe the fruit flies will piss off now that there's no bucket full of standing water in the basement. Those buggers are everywhere this year.

 

[robertus]

Bottled this up yesterday afternoon. Due to unforseen circumstances, I wasn't able to re-set the swamp cooler until late last week; by that point, I figured it wasn't worth the effort. Any damage from sitting at room temperature would've manifested itself by then. However, the beer looked and tasted spot on - maybe a smidge pale, but pretty close (picked up a sixer of Anchor Steam to make sure it tasted about right). I'll check back in a couple of weeks, once they've had a chance to carbonate.