What would you do? Diacetyl rest or cold crash it?

[theWilly]

I'm working on a "Texas Bock" styled brew. The aim was for something similar to Shiner but with a little more ABV

Ingredients:

~4lbs Munton's Bock LME
2.0 lb Light DME
2.5 lb Dextrose
0.75 lb Crystal 120L steeped @ 165 ~60 min
Topped carboy off with water to a little over 5.0 gal mark

Pitched (3) packs 11.5g Saflager W-34/70 Dry Lager Yeast

OG was 1.066, pitched after cooling off over night 7 days ago. Aerated by shaking.

Today's gravity is 1.016 and I don't expect it to go much lower. Attenuation is 76%, which it looks like is pretty good for this yeast.

I rehydrated the yeast and cooled to 50f then pitched into 55f wort. which is right in the pocket for ferm temp with this yeast

I took a taste tonight and nothing particularly buttery or butterscotch tasting stuck out to me, I'm not sure that a diacetyl rest is really necessary seeing as I pitched a healthy amount at ferm temp, held a consistent temp ideal for the yeast, and this strain is supposed to be pretty clean. I didn't pick up on any off flavors beyond the taste of warm, flat beer.

Would you let it warm up to 60f and finish off with a diacetyl rest for another 2 or 3 days or go straight into a cold crash into the 30's to clean up some before moving on to the secondary this weekend?

In either case I'll rack straight to the keg and lager it at around 40f for about 6 weeks before carbing.

Just wanted to get some opinions before I go messing with the temp gauge! Thanks!

With any luck I'll be enjoying a nice homebrew lager on July 4th

And..FYI - this was my first run with my homemade wort chiller. 25' of 1/4" copper IIRC. It worked wonderfully and was pretty simply to make with off the shelf hardware store parts. If you're a beginner reading this, I HIGHLY recommend setting up a worth chiller, it was exponentially better than sloshing the kettle around in ice water in the sink. It took nearly 3 gallons from boiling down to 70ish in about 15 minutes and all I had to do was drink a beer and watch.

 

[h22lude]

If the yeast are finished, a d-rest won't do much. A d-rest is usually done when gravity is at 80%. This way the yeast are still active and can clean up. If you don't taste any buttery notes or it doesn't have a slick mouth feel then you should be ok.

 

[JimRausch]

The need for a D-Rest depends on how sensitive you are to diacetyl. Some people, me for one, are not great at detecting it. So I always do a 2 day D-rest just to be sure. No harm to do one ,and it might help drop sg a few points before lagering. After my d-rest I usually leave it at fermentation temps for a week or so before racking it off the yeast and dropping it to lagering temps. Same reason- no harm, may help. Lagering, in my mind, with my beers, is more an extended cold conditioning process. I don't expect any further sg drop(although sometimes I do get a point or 2).

 

[NTexBrewer]

I would check the gravity in 3 days to make sure it is done. The last 2 Light Lagers I have brewed with 34/70 (Pitching 2 packs) have attenuated around 82%. My recipe has 1 lb of Dextrose. My starting gravity was lower than yours at 1.046 but it finished at 1.008. My recipe is all grain which usually attenuates lower than DME and LME.

I noticed that your recipe has 2.5 lbs of Dextrose. That should ferment out completely which usually translates into a higher attenuation.

 

[dcp27]

is that a typo, or did you really use 2.5#s of sugar in this? thats a ton, esp considering a bock is a style that should use none, and you definitely should have higher than 76% attenuation with that much

i'd also recommend fermenting lagers cooler in the future, 55F is pretty warm, you should be closer to 50F.