Krausening with a different yeast than the main batch?

[Bobcatbrewing42]

I just made a batch of Marzen lager. I used two different yeasts for the two fermenters. Saf23 that was fresh saved in one fermenter and two sachets of Saf 34/70 lager yeast in the other. I just read an article in Zymurgy about Krausening lagers and want to give it a try. I set aside 1.5 liters of hot wort at the end of the boil and had saved a small amount of the saved Saf23 to pitch for the Krausening when the primary ferment slows down.

For the other carboy, I used both Sachets of S 34/70 and don't want to use another sachet for a krausen. The question is- Could I use another lager yeast to Krausen with? I have some saved Diamond lager yeast from a recent batch of German Pils..... Unrelated note- I did make a batch of Altbier that I accidently pitched two different yeasts into the same fermenter and the beer was excellent. (of course both yeasts were suitable for that style.)

 

[IslandLizard]

You know to add the Krausen right before bottling, not at the end of the primary?
Aren't you going to lager the batch first?

I don't see any problems using a (slightly) different yeast for that. It's only a small fraction of the beer.

BTW, how are you storing that 1.5 liter wort for all that time?

 

[ESBrewer]

I think it is possible to use kräusening in order to speed up the cleaning process (reduce diacetyl & other green tastes) in primary/secondary vessel. In this case another strain could be used. But beware that attenuation could change when adding the second strain (if it is more attenuative->better at utilising maltotriose that in beer). If you use kräusening to carbonate beer in bottles (a more typical case), adding a more attenuative strain could cause overcarbonation.

 

[couchsending]

You know to add the Krausen right before bottling, not at the end of the primary?
Aren't you going to lager the batch first?

I don't see any problems using a (slightly) different yeast for that. It's only a small fraction of the beer.

BTW, how are you storing that 1.5 liter wort for all that time?

Not necessarily. You can do it both ways. Adding it at the end of primary and transferring to a keg to carbonate while lagering is a great way to both clean up any green aspects or potential off flavors from primary and carbonate. I would say this is more common than actually waiting until the beer has been lagered for a month or so. I believe this is how Budweiser and Coors do it as well.

I Krausen a lot of beers. I much prefer it to force carbonating that’s for sure. I rarely use the same yeast/wort to do it. I don’t save wort as I’m a little afraid of that wort oxidizing while the main batch is fermenting. Next time you want to try it try to time your next ferment so you can just pull fermenting beer off and mix when adding the finishes ferment to a keg. Beers don’t need to be exact. The relatively small amount you’re adding won’t dramatically alter the flavor of the primary ferment.

 

[TheMadKing]

Noonan recommends using krausening in a secondary to ensure full attenuation and assist with diacetyl clean up. So it's definitely a valid technique used in this sense

I would think as long as your secondary yeast doesn't throw any off flavors it will be fine. There's no reason it should, they are the same species, so they won't interact negatively and at that stage there probably isn't enough to ferment to create any off flavors