Low Temperature - Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

[Jessee]

What would the results be if I intentionally ferment Wyeast 1010 at lower temperatures? For example maybe at lagering temperatures or even around high 40s- low 50s. More or less just curious. Thought about trying it out.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Some ale yeasts can ferment fairly low like US-05. Many will just go to sleep if pushed too low. Wyeast 1010 is one that can go pretty low. I've never gone below 60F with it but you could possibly go as low as 55F. I don't know if I would go any lower.

I'm not sure why you would need to do that when you could just use a lager yeast. US-05 is actually known to produce a peach flavor when fermented low so lower temp is not a guarantee of a cleaner flavor if that's what you're going for.

 

[Kent88]

Looks like that yeast can only handle it down to 58F, I'd guess that any lower than that and they'll go dormant.

Is there a certain characteristic you're trying to get out of pushing it that low?

1007 can be pushed down to 55F, 2565 can go down to 56F, and 2112 can handle 58F.

 

[BrunDog]

It's a pretty clean strain for a wheat beer... Not sure the benefit to going colder on it, unless you have a good starter and limited fermenter headspace!

 

[Jessee]

The main reason to go lower is my fermentation chamber also has a lager fermenting at the recommended level at around 52-54 degrees. I've wondered if their will be any repercussions to fermenting that low considering its not many degrees lower than recommended level. I knew too high temperatures lead to banana esters but I don't know what going to low would bring other than possibly making the yeast go dormant.

 

[standpoint]

I use 1010 yeast in a Kolsch recipe I have brewed many times. The beer tastes best when I ferment at 58. If warmer, like 64-66 I get a slightly different flavor to the Kolsch, and is a lot less 'lager-like'. When fermenting at 58, I've seen the batch take 2.5 weeks to ferment before the bubbling stops. At 64-66, the same beer ferments out in days.

I haven't gone any lower than maybe 56-58 with that yeast, and would probably not go lower.

 

[BrunDog]

The main reason to go lower is my fermentation chamber also has a lager fermenting at the recommended level at around 52-54 degrees. I've wondered if their will be any repercussions to fermenting that low considering its not many degrees lower than recommended level. I knew too high temperatures lead to banana esters but I don't know what going to low would bring other than possibly making the yeast go dormant.

Funny... I am doing something similar. I have an Oktoberfest that I brewed last week. It has been fermenting at 52. I just started raising it to do a diacetyl res. When it gets to the mid 60s in a couple of days, I am going to brew an Orange Honey Wheat with 1010. I did the starter last night so it will be ready for a brew, likely Sunday. I am going to put them in parallel for the roughly 7 days it will take the 1010 to ferment out, then lower the Oktoberfest for lagering. Never done this before, but it should work OK, especially because I have a healthy wheat yeast which will rip through the primary in a hurry.

 

[Kent88]

Lots of people have decent results fermenting lagers as high as the low 60s. If most of primary fermentation is done on your lager, this could be and opportunity for something of an extended diacetyl rest. Just go ahead and set up the fridge for the high 50s and see what happens. If most of fermentation is done with that lager, you might not even be able to tell the difference anyway.