Too late to start a rest?

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FenoMeno

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I started fermentation ten days ago and hit FG after day four. In the past I did a diacetyl rest After secondary. Now I'm researching a bit more and see many guys are starting the rest from 50-80% of expected FG.

As I've already hit terminal five days ago, is it still worth bringing up for a rest for 72 hours or so, or is it too late to make a difference?
 
It certainly won't hurt. I believe that raising the temp sooner can result in a shorter ferment.
If you liked the beer you made before, keep your process the same.
 
What kind of beer is it? Just curious why you do a rest after you transfer to secondary? I only really do a diacetyl rest for my lighter lagers, and then I transfer to the lagering vessel (or secondary). If its a lighter style, then I would still try to do a rest before transferring. The purpose is for the yeast to clean up the diacetyl (which can cause buttery flavors) produced during primary fermentation, and you only need active yeast. I used to go by that whole ~80% fermented rule, but now I usually just do a rest at between 10-12 days. Either way its your beer, make your own rules...cheers!
 
It won't hurt, but if a diacetyl rest is really needed, it probably won't help.

Active yeast are the ones that digest the diacetyl, so once it's been at FG for more than 24 hours it would be hard to get them to work especially if the beer has started to clear or been removed from the yeast cake.
 
What kind of beer is it? Just curious why you do a rest after you transfer to secondary? I only really do a diacetyl rest for my lighter lagers

Thanks Goe,

Well I use a conical and primarily brew czech/german lagers, so I'm not racking per se but dumping/harvesting.

On a request I'm trying a gumball wheat. I read into it a bit and see some guys doing a sort of rest even on an ale like this--I thought what the heck I'll give it a try. I pitched low at 64, let it rise to 68 where it's been maintained since. I was going to bring it up to 70-72 to let it clean up before kegging. Maybe this is a waste of time as I said there was no more action at 68--however I thought maybe at the higher temp, and dry hop addition (O2 in the hops), it might jump back into action. (WLP001)
[I know some will ask why I'm doing this for an ale, well the forum's are full of opinions and as I'm not normally an ale brewer, or in a hurry, thought I'd try it if it's not too late.]

Seeing your profile name, for this beer, I'm excited your the guy who commented on my post!
 
Seeing your profile name, for this beer, I'm excited your the guy who commented on my post!

Actually, I can't stand wheat beers and my username is a play on that fact...but thanks for the confidence. Haha.

Anyway, I'm not so confident that doing a rest will have much effect at this point but I'm more confident that it won't hurt. Yeast will stay in suspension and can be active for a long time, so they can still clean up after fermentation. To what degree, who knows? But I rarely package prior to 2 weeks to allow for this cleaning...

I do suggest that if you're going to do one, then I'd do it before dumping the yeast...but that it just what I would choose to do
 
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