Moktoberfest (Ale) fermentation time

[mhayden37]

I finally got around to brewing a batch of Moktoberfest last night. I used Wyeast 1007 (Ale) yeast instead of lager yeast. How long should I let this ferment? My plan is to do two weeks primary, then rack to secondary for about a month. In secondary I plan on using a "swamp cooler" to bring temps down to 55-60 degrees which is the lowest temperature 1007 will ferment at. Lagering would require about 2 months in secondary. Is 1 month enough? I am kegging it when all said and done. Any other suggestions would be great.

 

[Hex23]

Since it sounds like you have the means to cool, (in the future) I'd advise spending your efforts on getting the temps down in the beginning. Trying to keep the temps on the lower side of the fermentation range once the yeast are mostly done (secondary), is of minimal value. Even though it's called secondary fermentation, there really isn't any fermenting going on, just clearing and a little cleanup. If you're trying to lager (which is a process where the yeast are inactive), you need temps lower than 55-60.

I've used 1007 alot and it will create a clean beer, unfortunately it has very slow flocculation. I have done a 4 week primary and no secondary at 60F, then quick cold crash, and it cleared just fine and tasted clean. I have a couple of beers going now that are using Pacman yeast. In my opinion it has the same cleanness, and will flocculate much more readily. Unfortunately, to get some, you either have to hit the window when Wyeast has it, or harvest from a Rogue beer.