German Bock Lager WLP833

So I'm brewing up a Helles Bock soon and did not test out my fridge first to see if it would support the 48* primary. Apparently my garage fridge only has a slush/almost slush setting. That'd be great for the lagering though. When I checked my family fridge, I see that it can go up to 46*. My question is: will that 2* under min be ok for this yeast? Hoping the constant door opening might level it out just a tad.

 

I usually ferment this yeast around 50 F, and have done it at 48 F. Getting much lower will certainly slow the fermentation down. However, if the temp on the fridge is 46 F, you can expect fermentation to be a few degrees warmer because it's an exothermic process. I usually set my fermentation fridge controller so that the ambient is around 45 or 46, and the beer fermentation temp hovers at 50. I think you'll be fine. Just be sure to pitch a lot of yeast and oxygenate so that you don't stress the yeast during the lag phase.

 

Thanks! I have one vial for one gallon. That should suffice, correct?

 

I'm brewing a 1048 german pils, 5.5 gallons this weekend, and it called for about 400 billion cells. So for 1 gallon, 1 vial should be good. Use 02 and nutrients. What's your OG?

 

A Helles Bock is usually a little bit bigger of a beer, but even if you're at 1.080 OG, you still only need around 50 billion cells to pitch for that 1 G batch. A (fresh, and therefore high viability) vial usually has between 90 and 100 billion cells, so you should be just fine. Make sure the use-by date on the vial has not passed, and all is well.

 

Thanks guys. Target OG is 1.072.