Will a long lagering primary time hurt?

[Cimerian]

If my lager is ready now to start dropping in temp will it hurt to let it wait long enough to brew another lager this weekend then ferment it at the 54F then drop both down at the same time?

 

[muph]

If you let it sit too long the yeast will go through an autolytic cell destruction and contribute yeast flavors to your beer.

Autolysis (biology) - Wikipedia


Watch from 5:40-6:34, it explains racking time frame/process as well as autolysis.
or
Watch from 6:21-6:34 if you just wanna hear about autolysis...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daCvVxvQzCM]Homebrew Beer[/ame]

 

[MissouriBrewer]

The hysteria about autolysis is completely overblown. I've had 1.055 ales in primary for 6-7 weeks with absolutely no problems, and in fact they end up smoother than my beers I rack sooner. I routinely ferment my lagers in the primary fermenter for 3-4 weeks at 50F, and then slowly drop the temperature to 36F and keep them there for another 2-3 weeks. Total 6 weeks for a lager in primary before racking. No off flavors whatsoever. Gives the yeast a chance to clean up after themselves.

 

[Revvy]

If you let it sit too long the yeast will go through an autolytic cell destruction and contribute yeast flavors to your beer.

Autolysis (biology) - Wikipedia


Watch from 5:40-6:34, it explains racking time frame/process as well as autolysis.
or
Watch from 6:21-6:34 if you just wanna hear about autolysis...

Homebrew Beer

OH god....NO it won't......that's been long since shot down...You seem to have missed the thousands of discussions about this on here.

John Palmer actually retracted what he said in HTB. He discussed it in a couple podcasts, at one of the homebrewer's conferences, and a discussion with Jamil, which are all quoted and referenced in the thread I posted below.

Some of his original initial comments like the one at the conference seemed to echo verbatum what I and a few others had said when we began these discussions and recording our experiences on here 4 years ago. I believe a lot of the shift can be attributed to us here. Which influenced basic brewing and byo magazine to start the dialogue more pubically.

Nowadays even many instructions, in BYO magazine, and even some kits suggest a long primary as opposed to using a secondary. So it's pretty obviously that they're not buying that bogeyman anymore either.

I suggest you read THIS thread, it's become the "uber discussion" on this topic thread.

To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In .

This is a misoconception that so many people have, autolysed yeast and dead yeast are NOT the same thing. And folks need to grasp this, and quit worrying about autoysis. It's just not an issue for us....

Autolysis is to yeasts what peritonitus is to humans, it's a specific condition. Everyone who dies doesn't have their intestines rupture and rotten bacteria dump into their bloodstream.

NOR does every yeast cell that dies dump the contents of IT'S cells into the beer. If that were the case every beer we ever make would autolysize...

Autolysis is not the inevitable end of healthy yeast. It is the unnatural end that is a product of yeast health...like peritinitus or even cancer in us....it is an abberation....UNHEALTHY AND STRESSED yeast autolyse... but rarely do we have unhealthy yeast these days, most of the yeast we pitch is fresh...and unless we are making a huge beer, even underpitching will not NECESSARILY produce stressed out yeast. Or stressed out yeast that will automatically autlolyse....

Most yeast that folks call dead, is actually dormant. Like most of what's in the bottom of the fermenter when fermentation is complete. And the yeast is indead dead, a lot of it is canibalized by the living yeast. And the rest, if the yeast was healthy to begin with, is just dead....think of it as natural causes, it's not necessarily spilling it's "intestinal" goop into our beer.

As Palmer and Jamil have said it is a RARE occurance these days that yeast actually dies anymore, let alone actually autolyses. It just goes dormant when the job is done and waits for the next round of sugar (much like when we pitch on top of the old yeast cake- which even some commercial brewers do for multiple generations.) The cells rarely rupture and die off.

It's not like 30 years ago (when most of those opinions that you espouse about autolysis originated from) when our hobby was still illegal, and there wasn't a lot of FRESH yeast available to us. The yeast used in hobby brewing was usually in cake form, which came from Germany and England in hot cargo ships and may have sat on a store shelf for a long time....or the brewer just used bread yeast.

Palmer even said this in the broadcast I quote from above-

So the whole health and vitality of yeast was different back then compared to now. Back then it made sense. You had weaker yeast that had finished fermentation that were more susceptible to autolysis and breaking down. Now that is not the case. The bar of homebrewing has risen to where we are able to make beer that has the same robustness as professional beer. We've gotten our techniques and understanding of what makes a good fermentation up to that level, so you don't need to transfer the beer off the yeast to avoid autolysis like we used to recommend.

Yeast in the 21st century is much healthier to begin with, and is less prone to have issues like their cells autolysing....just like our own health tends to be better these days.

 

[Revvy]

If my lager is ready now to start dropping in temp will it hurt to let it wait long enough to brew another lager this weekend then ferment it at the 54F then drop both down at the same time?

Your beer will be fine till you are ready. In fact it will be better than fine, having not rushed it.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

If you let it sit too long the yeast will go through an autolytic cell destruction and contribute yeast flavors to your beer.

^this^ is entirely untrue.

OH god....NO it won't......that's been long since shot down...You seem to have missed the thousands of discussions about this on here.

and here i thought YouTube was the be all and end all of cutting edge brewing knowledge!!

OP, if you're talking about leaving the beer for another month, then dropping both batches to lagering temps, you'll be fine.

 

[TimTrone]

The hysteria about autolysis is completely overblown. I've had 1.055 ales in primary for 6-7 weeks with absolutely no problems, and in fact they end up smoother than my beers I rack sooner. I routinely ferment my lagers in the primary fermenter for 3-4 weeks at 50F, and then slowly drop the temperature to 36F and keep them there for another 2-3 weeks. Total 6 weeks for a lager in primary before racking. No off flavors whatsoever. Gives the yeast a chance to clean up after themselves.

THIS!!!
Autolysis is a problem for commercial brewers using huge conical fermenters exerting a ton of pressure and heat on the yeast. Home brewers doing 5 or 10 gallons in a carboy don't have to worry nearly as much.

In normal strength brews I primary for 3-4 weeks. For BDS or barleywines I will go 5-6 weeks. My beers has tasted much much better, and I have scored much much higher in comps since switching to doing mostly primarys.