I everyone. I want to start this off by saying I accidentally forgot to take on OG reading on brew day because I was helping a buddy do his first AG as I was brewing my own. I pitched and aerated two packets of Saflager S-23, which I've never used, once wort was down to 70 degrees and I placed it in my kegerator to ferment for a week at 43 ambient. I had a medium layer of foamy white krausen and could see yeast activity through the carboy. After a week, I became nervous of diacetyl so I took it out for a 2 day rest and the first round of dry hopping. While out on rest, the beer went crazy. The krausen nearly doubled and there was tremendous activity in the container attached to the blow off tube. I'm hoping that there aren't any off favors and it's a combination of increased yeast activity and off gassing due to warming up. I kept it out for two days and just put it back in. I know it's difficult to diagnose w/o hydrometer readings, but what do you guys think? Is this normal?
Dry lager yeast question
- Thread starter MacGruber
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
Is this your first lager? There is a good chanse that you will get esters. a week at 43 (considering lag time and yeast count, without starter) would have only given you a(guestamated) drop of about 10 maybe 15 gravity points. thus a good deal of your fermentation now toke place at 65'ish. ( and pitching temp was a bit high too )
But still no big deal, it will still be beer!
But still no big deal, it will still be beer!
It's my second lager. I made this same recipe before, but used liquid yeast and a starter. I decided to try dry yeast for the first time and used two packets to increase pitch rate because I figured That I wanted a very neutral yeast profile. I don't remember how it fermented before but it seems close. Biggest mistake was forgetting to take the hydrometer reading; I usually don't forget. This is now a guessing game with this lager, which is terrible. Could it be okay if I let it lager for a few weeks in my kegerator at low temps?
Well, there is not much els you can do at this stage. there are many opinions about lagers and lagering around here, but If you hit FG, pop it in the kegerator for 4 weeks @ about 0-5 'C and it will be a lager. Its good that its the same recipe as your last one, if you still have a bottle left, it would be a very good side by side tasting. You might even like this one more. OR it might taste just the same
This is a Noble Pils and I dry hop twice. The first time I made it, it was my first all grain brew. It was still one of my favorite beers ever to this day. I'm holding out hope that I didn't get any esters from the two days at room temp after a week in fermentation. We will see.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
That's what I'm thinking/ hoping. I was just very surprised by how much activity there was after I let it warm up. Now, my possible theories include off gassing to even out pressure because I took it out of the kegerator, off gassing because it was warming, off gassing because I moved it around releasing CO2 from the solution, and greater yeast activity overall because it was warming. I'm really hoping that there aren't any noticeable esters because I love this recipe.
Update: it's been back in the kegerator all day and all krausen has dropped. It's starting to clear by the top and I noticed a large layer of yeast starting to settle on the bottom on top of the trub. Hopefully I had perfect timing and didn't create a fruity, off flavor lager.
wailingguitar
Well-Known Member
You can skip a warm temp diacetyl rest and avoid potential issues with ferm temps in the future. Diacetyl will be dealt with given time regardless of whether you rest warm or keep the beer at ferm temps. Let it ferment, lager it.. have beer... I haven't done a warm temp diacteyl rest in over 20 years I have been brewing, both home and pro, never an issue with diacetyl in a lager. Oh, and S23 has been my go to lager yeast since it was released in the late 90s.
Update: keg is almost done. It fermented a bit warm when I tried for a d-rest and has a slight buttery smell(which bothers me) but tastes great. I should have left it ferment longer before d-rest. When I took it out, it fermented fast and furious at about 65. Oh well. Live, learn, and drink!
Here is a picture!
Here is a picture!
Similar threads
