Pre-emptive tl;dr because I'm long-winded: With 1 pack of S-23, 2 of S-33, and 1 of T-58, how should I ferment two 20L buckets of 1.050 Vienna lager wort in a single fermentation chamber?
As the father of a toddler, I sometimes have to sneak in a brewday wherever I can. In that spirit, I started a wonky 24-hour brewday last night and I've started to realize I went in a bit underprepared. I did an overnight mash last night, sparged this morning, and I'll be boiling tonight. The brew is a double batch (40L) of ~1.050 wort, 7kg Vienna and 1kg Munich, intended to be a Vienna lager, more or less. Of course, I looked at my yeast this morning and realized I have exactly four packets, one S-23, two S-33, and one T-58, none of which are strains I've ever used and none of which is particularly fresh. I can't get any other yeast before it's time to pitch, so I'm stuck choosing from these three options.
I'll probably take a small portion of the wort and boil it separately for a couple minutes to create some mini-starters after rehydrating the yeast while I boil the rest of the wort tonight, so I'm not particularly worried about yeast health, though the pitch rate won't necessarily be optimal. However, I'm stressing a bit over what yeast strain/s to use. Both fermenters will be in the same chest freezer fermentation chamber so they'll be fermenting at the same temperature, and they'll have two weeks to ferment and go through a diacetyl rest, if necessary, before I leave them lagering for a month and a half while I'm out of the country. I'm not against using different strains in the different fermenters, but they'll need to work at the same temperatures.
If I think I can get away with it, I'd probably just split the pack of S-23 between the two fermenters, since it's supposed to be a lager and that's the lager yeast among the three (well, closest to a lager yeast, as it's reputed to ferment more like an ale yeast than most lager strains). However, I recognize that's a pretty massive underpitch. On the bright side, I'd be using a warm lager fermentation schedule, so half a pack per 20L isn't as bad as it would be at lower temperatures.
Neither S-33 nor T-58 has a particularly good reputation, and they don't really seem all that much like what I intend with a Vienna lager, but I'm willing to be adventurous. From some research, it sounds like T-58 might be a bit more amenable than S-33 to the warm-fermented lager schedule I would use if one batch uses S-23. S-33's low attenuation doesn't sound like it would give me the refreshing summer beer I'm going for, but then T-58's esters don't really sound like they'd hit the spot either.
So, in summation: HELP!
As the father of a toddler, I sometimes have to sneak in a brewday wherever I can. In that spirit, I started a wonky 24-hour brewday last night and I've started to realize I went in a bit underprepared. I did an overnight mash last night, sparged this morning, and I'll be boiling tonight. The brew is a double batch (40L) of ~1.050 wort, 7kg Vienna and 1kg Munich, intended to be a Vienna lager, more or less. Of course, I looked at my yeast this morning and realized I have exactly four packets, one S-23, two S-33, and one T-58, none of which are strains I've ever used and none of which is particularly fresh. I can't get any other yeast before it's time to pitch, so I'm stuck choosing from these three options.
I'll probably take a small portion of the wort and boil it separately for a couple minutes to create some mini-starters after rehydrating the yeast while I boil the rest of the wort tonight, so I'm not particularly worried about yeast health, though the pitch rate won't necessarily be optimal. However, I'm stressing a bit over what yeast strain/s to use. Both fermenters will be in the same chest freezer fermentation chamber so they'll be fermenting at the same temperature, and they'll have two weeks to ferment and go through a diacetyl rest, if necessary, before I leave them lagering for a month and a half while I'm out of the country. I'm not against using different strains in the different fermenters, but they'll need to work at the same temperatures.
If I think I can get away with it, I'd probably just split the pack of S-23 between the two fermenters, since it's supposed to be a lager and that's the lager yeast among the three (well, closest to a lager yeast, as it's reputed to ferment more like an ale yeast than most lager strains). However, I recognize that's a pretty massive underpitch. On the bright side, I'd be using a warm lager fermentation schedule, so half a pack per 20L isn't as bad as it would be at lower temperatures.
Neither S-33 nor T-58 has a particularly good reputation, and they don't really seem all that much like what I intend with a Vienna lager, but I'm willing to be adventurous. From some research, it sounds like T-58 might be a bit more amenable than S-33 to the warm-fermented lager schedule I would use if one batch uses S-23. S-33's low attenuation doesn't sound like it would give me the refreshing summer beer I'm going for, but then T-58's esters don't really sound like they'd hit the spot either.
So, in summation: HELP!
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