Lager Temp Schedule Question

[gleevo]

Currently making my second lager, the first one (Feb 2016) turned out fantastic. Diacetyl rest is underway, I'll be dropping the temperature 5f to lager temperatures starting tomorrow; like I did last year.

I'm starting another lager Friday but when it comes time to bring it down to lager temperature after the diacetyl I have the capacity to fit it with the batch I'm putting in tomorrow, but I won't be able to bring it down gradually in temperature without bringing the other batch up.

Is it OK to bring it from room temperature after diacetyl right down to 34f immediately? This process would take about 7 days if dropping 5f/day.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

If by the end of the diacetyl rest the fermentation is considered complete, I can't see how crashing it to 34 degrees can harm it. Cold crashing seems to be a rather common event around here.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Like he said - as long as D-rest is complete (sample to see if you detect any), a cold crash won't hurt at all.

That said, be careful with your airlock, as you could get suckback where the contracting air and fluid in your fermenter creates a vacuum in the headspace and pulls some airlock fluid back into the fermenter.

It's not a big deal, as long as you don't have some kind of nasty or toxic fluid in your airlock (unlikely). I usually switch from a 3-piece to an S-type airlock for cold crashing though. Less chance of suckback.

 

[gleevo]

Perfect thanks, I'm familiar with cold crashing but have always read you drop the temp slowly from d-rest to lagering so figured there was some rationale.

 

[ncsuwerewolf]

I always go d rest to lager temp on my beers and have had no complaints. Crisp clean kolsch and lagers.

 

[bigringking]

I just heard on the 12-19-16 episode of Brew Strong that quickly crashing lagers to clarify and/or hit lager temperatures stresses the yeast and can produce esters. I personally am going to try to slowly drop my next lager after the D-rest to try to avoid this. Plus I'll do some more looking around to see if this info is backed up in writing somewhere.
Jamil suggested dropping temps no quicker than 5-6*F per day, for what that is worth.

 

[KeninMN]

I just heard on the 12-19-16 episode of Brew Strong that quickly crashing lagers to clarify and/or hit lager temperatures stresses the yeast and can produce esters. I personally am going to try to slowly drop my next lager after the D-rest to try to avoid this. Plus I'll do some more looking around to see if this info is backed up in writing somewhere.
Jamil suggested dropping temps no quicker than 5-6*F per day, for what that is worth.

I'm not sure how that would happen. The assumption is that you are cold crashing after fermentation is complete, the yeast have consumed all of the sugars that they will consume and have gone dormant, while ester production is something I would associate with active fermentation. That said, I've never bothered with ramping schedules. When I'm ready to cold crash I simply set the controller to the cold crash temperature and remove all of the sanitizer from the airlock so that it doesn't suck into the carboy (the goal at this point in the process being preventing any foreign material from falling into the beer for the couple of days it takes to cold crash prior to bottling, rather than preventing microbial infections).

 

[bigringking]

I'm not sure how that would happen. The assumption is that you are cold crashing after fermentation is complete, the yeast have consumed all of the sugars that they will consume and have gone dormant, while ester production is something I would associate with active fermentation.

I don't know for sure that they are dormant. They may not be active, but they may not be totally inactive either. Another thing JZ said was that you don't want to lager lower than 40*F. I would guess this is because they still have some activity left in them? Like they actually do some work at lagering temps perhaps. But as I said, I'd like to do some more reading on these issues to see if I can find some backing info one way or the other. I personally have always 'crashed' my beers too - lagers and ales - to clarify them. But I am not so sophisticated a brewer, nor a taster (yet), that I could tell the differences batch to batch.

 

[KeninMN]

I don't know for sure that they are dormant. They may not be active, but they may not be totally inactive either. Another thing JZ said was that you don't want to lager lower than 40*F. I would guess this is because they still have some activity left in them? Like they actually do some work at lagering temps perhaps. But as I said, I'd like to do some more reading on these issues to see if I can find some backing info one way or the other. I personally have always 'crashed' my beers too - lagers and ales - to clarify them. But I am not so sophisticated a brewer, nor a taster (yet), that I could tell the differences batch to batch.

For what it's worth, this is the method I follow:

http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/

I use the alternate method without gradual temperature ramps. So far it's worked exceedingly well for me.

 

[Morrey]

Perfect thanks, I'm familiar with cold crashing but have always read you drop the temp slowly from d-rest to lagering so figured there was some rationale.

I think the rationale of dropping slowly goes back to Germans cellaring lagers in caves where ambient temps would slowly drop (or rise) as the seasons changed. This was before the days of refrigeration, so with the advent of temp controllers and ways to control your environment closely, lots of this rationale is considered old school now.

I have stepped it down 5F at a time, then I have crashed it right on down with no stops, and I honestly could not tell you it made any difference in my opinion. The only caution I offer is that cold crashing can cause a reverse suction on a blow off tube and suck sanitizer back into your beer. So I change my BO tube to a 3 pc airlock when I crash. FWIW.

 

[Yalc]

When they say 50% attenuation do they mean to the expected FG or to 1.000?

 

[STMF]

Expected attenuation.