Question for those who worry about yeast cakes - Autolysis

[sonvolt]

Why does autolysis not occur in our bottle conditioned beers. After all, these bottled beers are sitting atop a tiny yeast cake. Some brewers talk about saving bottles for a year or more. Why are we worried about autolysis after 6-8 weeks in our primaries when we leave beer on yeast cakes longer than this in our bottled beer?

 

[Evan!]

I'm taking a stab in the dark here, but my guess is that it's because the amount of yeast in the the bottle is minuscule compared to the massive yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[Torchiest]

Yes, I would agree, and add that the ratio of yeast cake to remaining fermentables is way more skewed towards the fermentables, such that the tiny yeast population can survive for a very long time.

 

[sonvolt]

I was listening to that episode of the Basic Brewing Network Podcast about lagering. The host (who btw, is boring as hell) was interviewing John Palmer about lagers. John Palmer does not rack lagers to secondary. He does primary fermentation and secondary lagering in the same vessel. When the host asked him about autolysis - he said that it was not an issue.

Here is another example of how a beer can be on the same yeast cake for up to 8 weeks with no autolysis.

just sayin'

 

[Torchiest]

Eh, what does John Palmer know about brewing anyway?