Lager Yeast Fermentation

[taylormade4322]

I recently brewed my first lager. It is a Winter Type Lager and came in at about 1.062 OG. Everything in the brew session went to plan. Oxygenated the wort for 90 seconds with pure 02. Cooled wort to 54-56.

Placed it in the ferm at around 52 and pitched my 3.5 liter starter (2 vials WLP830). Within 12 hours this things took off. Been bubbling like crazy for about 72 hours now.

Is this normal and to be expected of a Lager Yeast.? I was under the impression that a lager yeast was a lot more subtle than an ale strain and would not show as much activity. I guess I was thinking with 3-4 week fermentation time the activity would be minimal. Also, with a typical lager strain, how long can I expect this much activity? Is it similar to an ale fermentation 4 or so days (heavy activity)?

Thanks gents!

 

[Brettomomyces]

Are you controlling the temperature or did you just start it at 52 and let the yeast go crazy?

 

[taylormade4322]

It is in a temperature controlled 15.4 CF chest with 0.5 degrees of variation and has a thermawell in the vessel.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Ok, just had to make sure

Lager yeasts can be pretty active at first, and it looks like you made a good healthy starter. Primary fermentation can finish a lot faster than 3-4 weeks as well, I wouldn't be surprised if you were at FG before the end of two weeks. It will definitely be a longer primary than an ale though. As long as you are actively keeping the temperature controlled I would be happy that the yeast are having a good time.

 

[taylormade4322]

Oh good. I just did not expect to see what I did when I opened that lid after 12 hours. I was worried that I may have way over pitched. But calculated my cells count and did things by the book. I have found that sometimes "by the book" is not always the best outcome.

 

[taylormade4322]

Brett....You are in Denver? I am Highlands Ranch!

 

[Gavin C]

Is this normal and to be expected of a Lager Yeast.?

Sounds normal to me. I've made 4 lagers to date so take my post with a healthy pinch of skepticism. All received 2mins of 02. Big fat starters for all. Pitched all at 48F and fermented at 50F till 1-2°Plato above FG. All were kegged from 14-16 days post pitching the yeast. Lagering and carbonating in the keg till ready.

• Healthy pitch-rate
• Precise control of beer temps (not ambient)
• Good oxygenation

OP, you're ticking all the boxes for a healthy fermentation and appropriate lag-phase duration by the sounds of things. Fermenting a touch warm perhaps but probably no biggie.

My fifth lager is in the FV at the moment at 50F. Not ramping this one till FG is reached as I'm away.

NB* Big starter: I assume you're decanting off the spent starter-beer before pitching.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Brett....You are in Denver? I am Highlands Ranch!

I was in Denver, need to change my profile. Bought a house up in Thornton a couple months ago.

Gavin's post hit all the stuff I missed...sounds like you got a good beer going!

 

[taylormade4322]

Gavin,

So when you say you pitched at 48....Are you chilling it to that temp with a plate/chiller or are you getting it that cold by letting it sit in the cold ferm for a bit before pitching?

I tried like hell to get mine down that far with a pre-chiller, and a 70' copper coil.

I am talking a 50' Herms coil (HTL) pre-chiller in ice water then through another 70' of copper in the wort. I get it down to 60 in like 18 minutes but that last 12 degrees seems impossible to achieve. I just can't get there. Well I guess i could but I do not want to run my water until the Governor of California calls.

 

[BrunDog]

Keep in mind that while primary fermentation can happen relatively quickly with healthy yeast, off flavors like diacetyl will be created, and the yeast need to be given time to clean those up and produce a clean fermentation appropriate for the style.

 

[Gavin C]

I do not want to run my water until the Governor of California calls.

I hear ya'.

Texas ground-water temps make chilling the wort below ~65F in the winter and ~85F in the summer a near impossibility.

I use a pre-chiller in the summer upstream from my plate-chiller. My chest-freezer fermentation chamber does the rest. For a morning lager brew there is usually 6 hours between flameout and pitching yeast.

Pre-chiller


Plate-chiller


Fermentation chamber and Beer temp at 10°C +/- 0.3°C


Last lager fermentation profile (Vienna Lager)


*All done in the primary vessel. No racking except to keg. Titles are used for ease of use in Beersmith.

 

[Gavin C]

This shows some of the many ways to conduct the yeast orchestra to ferment lagers. It's taken from Braukaiser's website on lager fermentation but is originally sourced from the Technical University of Vienna

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

60 in 18 minutes seems like a long time. My garden hose in an old foam cooler will take a five gallon batch dang near that quick. Don't think I need to spend any money on a copper coil.

 

[BrunDog]

I don't think pre-chillers work that well as you are attempting to cool too much volume of flush water. You may only bring it down a few degrees. If I had an IC and a CFC or plate chiller, I would use the IC to cool in the BK first, then use the CFC/plate chiller with ice water to cool the work on the way from the BK to the fermenter.

If I had the one CFC or plate chiller I would recirculate back into the BK with groundwater to shed most of the heat first, then switch the chiller to flush with ice water while transferring from BK to fermenter. This would allow you to get it as cold as you want for lagers.

I live in South FL and as a result have two counterflow chillers inline. The first flushes with ground water to get the wort into the 80's and the second with ice water via a fountain pump to get it into the 50s. Takes about 10 minutes to transfer 6 gallons.

-BD