Saflager 34/70

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Redtab78

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I am brewing a marzen beer and the only available lager yeast was the saflager 34/70 at my LHBS. The only time I have used this was in an attempt at an oktoberfest beer that turned out like I was drinking pure butter, so I am questioning the method I used for this. I think I just dumped the dry packet into my fermenter after cooling (but I did not have a good ferm chamber at the time) and I was wondering if this would be ok to do this time, now that I can control the temp way better.
Having that said, what is the proper way to use this yeast, should I hydrate first, or will sprinkling this over the beer be ok? Also, I have 2 packs of the yeast that I was going to pitch is this too much?

My ferm schedule will he as follows:
Primary 14 days at 55, then raise the temp up over a 3 day period to 65, then secondary at 45 for about 6 months. Does this sound about right for this yeast strain?
 
Two packs (rehydrated) works every time for me. I keep it at 54-55 or so for the first week or so and then ramp it up to d-rest temp and leave it until it's time to keg.

Oh - and lagering for 6 months is probably way too long. One month close to freezing will do it.
 
I know it's Un necessary for 6 months, I just will be coming and going alot, so it won't hurt to sit at lager temp until I'm ready to drink it
 
The recommended procedure is to rehydrate properly, then over the course of 10-20 minutes, keep adding cold water to get the temp down to within several degrees of your wort temp. Then pitch.
 
Question....after D rest, do you transfer to secondary then lagger, or lagger in primary?
 
After D rest, lager in primary for about a week. Then if you want, add gelatin, wait 3-4 more days, then bottle or keg it and finish the job in the package. No need to wait for months or even weeks. Might take a couple weeks for diacetyl to disappear completely but that's about it.
 
Since we are talking about this yeast,

I'm thinking of brewing an Oktoberfest next weekend, and cold conditioning it for October.

Question for those if you who've used this yeast, how long does it take to ferment out a typical 1.055-ish OG beer?

Typically my ales ferment for a week or so in the mid 60s, and I leave them in primary for another week for a D-rest and cleaning up.
I usually keg immediately after that, fine 2 weeks after cold conditioning, and tap 2 weeks later (1 month total cold conditioning).

If I can pull this off with this yeast i'm going for it!

Thanks!
 
It will be ready for a D rest in a week, then only needs another week or two to clean up (with or without gelatin), and then it's ready to package. Might need another few weeks to clean up residual diacetyl or sulfur after packaging but this doesn't happen on every batch. As soon as it tastes good you can drink it.
 
It will be ready for a D rest in a week, then only needs another week or two to clean up (with or without gelatin), and then it's ready to package. Might need another few weeks to clean up residual diacetyl or sulfur after packaging but this doesn't happen on every batch. As soon as it tastes good you can drink it.

Thanks! I'll ferment this at 53-55 degrees, and then ramp up the temperature after 5 days per Brulosopher's quick lager method.

:tank:
 
I brewed a marzen with this yeast about 4 weeks ago. It fermented from 1.065 to 1.013 with two rehydrated Packs. I fermented in low 50's for 1 week then raised to mid 60's for 4 day d-rest. It's been in the fridge lagering for 2 & 1/2 weeks. It has cleared up with a bunch of sediment on the bottom. I plan to bottle on Saturday and let it bottle condition till mid September.
 
I brewed a marzen with this yeast about 4 weeks ago. It fermented from 1.065 to 1.013 with two rehydrated Packs. I fermented in low 50's for 1 week then raised to mid 60's for 4 day d-rest. It's been in the fridge lagering for 2 & 1/2 weeks. It has cleared up with a bunch of sediment on the bottom. I plan to bottle on Saturday and let it bottle condition till mid September.

Oh wow that's as fast as a lot of the other dry yeast strains - seems like it attenuates quite a bit too.

Oh man! I'm either gonna try a marzen, be on the lookout for the new Danstar ESB dry yeast, or gonna get some good ol' White Labs WLP002/Wyeast 1968 for a coffee porter... decisions decisions!
 
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