Wyeast Pacman yeast temperature?

[Yooper]

I just bought some Pacman yeast for my Dead Guy clone. My house is pretty cool right now- does anyone know the optimum temperature for the pacman yeast? It's not in the yeast descriptions on Wyeast's website.

Hopefully, 62-63 degrees would be good (kitchen). My laundry room is even cooler than that- 58 degrees. I can find a place that's near 65 most of the time, but it wouldn't be really convenient (my computer room). My basement is getting very cold- almost time for a lager!

Anyway, if anyone has an idea of a good temperature for both primary and secondary for this yeast type, I'd appreciate it.

Lorena

 

[seyahmit]

You will be fine. John Maier ferments cool with Pacman.

From the Wyeast website:

“Pacman is really great yeast; everything about it is good. Pacman attenuates well, is alcohol tolerant, and it produces beers with no diacetyl if the beer is well made. It’s very flocculent, which makes it a great choice for bottle conditioning. I ferment almost all my beers at 60° F; once in a while for certain styles I’ll ferment as high as 70° F, but never higher. Use lots of oxygen, and a high pitch rate. I never repitch past the 6th generation, and I always use Wyeast Yeast Nutrient.”
- John Maier, Brewmaster, Rogue Ales www.rogue.com

 

[spb]

I have a beer in secondary with Pacman yeast. I know that 60 degrees is fine as this is what Rogue does. As activity decreases the temperature is getting down into the high 50's. Are there negative effects on the beer from fermenting at temperatures below 60?

 

[Chad]

Resurrecting this thread because I've got an APA fermenting with Pacman right now. An overnight cold snap has the fermenter down to 58°, which doesn't worry me overmuch because Rogue ferments their beers at 60°F. I am a little concerned that the yeast will flocculate out prematurely, though. Doing a little research shows that the listed temp range is 60°-70°, however when Pacman was first released some retailers claimed that Pacman was good down to the mid-40s and working range was 48°-70°. Does anyone know for sure which is accurate?

Thanks,
Chad

 

[Yooper]

Resurrecting this thread because I've got an APA fermenting with Pacman right now. An overnight cold snap has the fermenter down to 58°, which doesn't worry me overmuch because Rogue ferments their beers at 60°F. I am a little concerned that the yeast will flocculate out prematurely, though. Doing a little research shows that the listed temp range is 60°-70°, however when Pacman was first released some retailers claimed that Pacman was good down to the mid-40s and working range was 48°-70°. Does anyone know for sure which is accurate?

Thanks,
Chad

Wow- that's a post from me from three years ago asking about that yeast strain! I don't know the "right" answer to your question but I have been using this strain for several beers over the last three years. I've actually gone below 60 degrees with it, and it didn't stop when it dropped. They were gradual drops, though, and not a rapid drop. I don't think I ever went below 56-57 degrees, though.

 

[Chad]

Wow- that's a post from me from three years ago asking about that yeast strain! I don't know the "right" answer to your question but I have been using this strain for several beers over the last three years. I've actually gone below 60 degrees with it, and it didn't stop when it dropped. They were gradual drops, though, and not a rapid drop. I don't think I ever went below 56-57 degrees, though.

Excellent! Thanks very much. I figured everything was fine but this is the first time I've used Pacman.

Chad

 

[Brew-boy]

Where did you find PacMan at?

 

[remilard]

Resurrecting this thread because I've got an APA fermenting with Pacman right now. An overnight cold snap has the fermenter down to 58°, which doesn't worry me overmuch because Rogue ferments their beers at 60°F. I am a little concerned that the yeast will flocculate out prematurely, though. Doing a little research shows that the listed temp range is 60°-70°, however when Pacman was first released some retailers claimed that Pacman was good down to the mid-40s and working range was 48°-70°. Does anyone know for sure which is accurate?

Thanks,
Chad

Think of it as a more attenuative version of the scottish strain (which may be the case but of course the origins are shrouded in mystery and nobody currently working at Rogue has any idea where it came from).

Tolerant of mid 50s, clean through the mid 60s and very estery at high temps.

 

[remilard]

Where did you find PacMan at?

Brewmaster's warehouse seems to have it.

 

[Yooper]

Brewmaster's warehouse seems to have it.

Yes, that's where my last store bought came from. I washed the cake, and have a couple of vials now.

I'm fermenting an IIPA right now (OG 1.072) at 60 degrees with pacman. I wanted to make sure it'll finish at a fairly low OG, but still be a very clean beer without esters, so I thought pacman would be ideal.

 

[Chad]

Think of it as a more attenuative version of the scottish strain (which may be the case but of course the origins are shrouded in mystery and nobody currently working at Rogue has any idea where it came from).

Tolerant of mid 50s, clean through the mid 60s and very estery at high temps.

Thanks for the information. I appreciate it. I've seen claims that Pacman is everything from mutated 1056/WLP001 to Brewtek CL-50 and nobody seems to know much about it other than the John Maier quote about fermenting at 60° and pitching lots of yeast. I'm really intrigued by an ale yeast that is good down to the 50°s. That bodes well for some of the beers I have planned. I am a bit concerned, though because this batch was pitched at 76°F. That was the best I could do; it was a crappy brew day, including a stuck sparge that required completely disassembling the mash tun. I'm surprised I even got wort into the fermenter. Oy. Anyway, I pitched at 76° and put the fermenter in a tub of cold water. It was down to 70° in a couple of hours and down to 60° in about 12 hours, so I'm probably all right, but I don't have high hopes for this beer. OTOH, I'm making Yooper's Dead Guy clone next so I'll have a boatload of Pacman ready to go.

Chad

 

[jds]

I've used pacman at pitch temperatures into the high 60's and low 70's with really good results. It's one of my favorite yeasts. I found mine at The brew Hut a while back, and I have several bottles of washed yeast waiting for use.

I did a split ferment of a ten gallon batch of rye pale ale, half with S-05 and half with pacman. My subjective tasting results were that I preferred the pacman-fermented beer over the S-05 beer.

 

[artguy]

Has anyone tried Pacman in the 50-55 degree range? I haven't tried it yet, but I picked up some Pacman in my last order from RebelBrewer to have on hand for winter brewing. I had read that its temp range goes down to 49F, and my basement stabilizes in the low 50's during the heart of winter. Just wondering...

 

[babalu87]

Yes, I also have heard it ferments as low as the mid 50's

 

[wilserbrewer]

This thread is motivating me to try and culture the dregs of a bomber of Brutal Bitter I've had in the fridge for a while...time to get off my arse and get some pacman cultured up.

 

[mrgstiffler]

This thread is motivating me to try and culture the dregs of a bomber of Brutal Bitter I've had in the fridge for a while...time to get off my arse and get some pacman cultured up.

Could you post back with how long it takes to get enough yeast to pitch? I'm planning a Yellow Snow clone that I want to culture some Pacman for.

 

[beerthief]

I'm fermenting with Pacman right now at 52F. Pitched with a starter, left it at room temperature for a day until it started fermenting and moved it into the cooler. It's been chugging along happily for about 2 weeks; I think it's almost done.

 

[Chad]

Good to know that it's going strong at that temperature. I like the idea of an ale yeast that can be fermented that cool.

The Pacman pale ale is done and conditioning in the keg. Not bad, and it didn't suffer from the higher than optimal starting temperature. Apparently getting it under 70° in a couple of hours was sufficient to minimize off flavors. What's really interesting is the Dead Guy clone that is fermenting now. It's Yooper's recipe but I missed my OG due to another disastrous brew day. My mash tun clogged again, forcing me to drain and sparge in a mesh bag. Needless to say, my efficiency went out the window. Be that as it may, I cooled with recirculated ice water and got the wort down to 60° before dumping it onto the swirled up Pacman yeast cake. The fermenter went into a water bath cooled with frozen bottles of water. I got bubbles in the blowoff vessel in about four hours, crazy fermentation for 48 hours, and now it's down to a bubble or two every couple of minutes. I'll take a hydro sample today, but I'm pretty sure it's done -- all between 58° and 60°. That's just amazing. I'll leave it in the fermenter for a full two weeks, the last three or four days in the fridge to clear it up a bit. I have great hopes for this beer. I'm definitely washing the yeast, and I think Pacman might become my house strain.

 

[magnj]

I have a Blonde fermenting with Pacman right now that I recovered from a bottle. Big lag time but it's going strong now in the low 60's. I'll report back.

 

[dleonard]

So I ordered some Pacman...
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Pacman-Yeast-from-Rogue-%2d-Wyeast-1764.html
Looking at the descripion is says that it ferments as low as 48F.
I didn't really look too hard, but I couldn't find anywhere else that says that it goes this low.
Wyeast says this:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/vssprogram.cfm?website=2
I'm going to use this yeast in a 'lager' that I'm going to do at 48F.
Anyway gotten close to it? 50F?
I'm brewing this weekend, so I'll let you know if fermentation starts...

 

[magnj]

Just to follow up the Blonde came out a little fruity, ferm temps were mid 60's. I plan to do one soon in the low 60's high 50's now that my basement is really cold.

 

[dleonard]

I ended up chickening out.
I didn't find anywhere else other than the rebelbrewer website that said 48, so I put thermometers around the house and found out that my spare bathtub stays around 67. So I just fermented in there.
Sorry for taking the easy way out.

 

[Turbulence]

I have a Shakespeare stout clone fermenting right now, it seems to be going strongly with the fermometer reading 52 due to a couple cold nights recently. I'll have to report back later after I find out how well it attenuates and tastes.

 

[troutab81]

I tried Pacman for the first time on my AG first every brew (60 min dogfish clone). While the brew day was a disaster with my stuck mash do to not having a siphon going and my efficiencies are well off expected, the Pacman was pitched around mid 60s.

It roared after 8 hours and brought the temp up to 72 by the following day (yikes).

Learning experience !

Although my blowoff tube smells like heaven.

 

[schmagy]

I just did the same thing temp wise. I got the wort colder than expected at 60 degree pitch and put it in the 62 degree basement. I had expected a start within 12 hours from previous batches i had pitched at 70 degrees, but didn't see activity at 18 hours, so i put a small heat lamp near the corny i ferment in, and got things warmed up to 68 and shut the lamp off.

Fermentation raised the temp all the way to 72 and held there until the ferment was finished 4 days later. Basement temp is consistent 63.

 

[Gofastr1]

Yesterday I brewed a really dark stout with an OG of 1.086, pitched at 70F. This was a 10g batch that I split into two 5 gallon batches and pitched with 1.5 quart, 24 hour old starters of Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) and Pacman, and set in my blanket-insulated fermentation box in my 61F basement. The Irish was bubbling through the blowoff slightly in 30 minutes; both were going within two hours.

This morning both were blowing gas like crazy, the Irish spitting krausen through the tube. Fermometer temp read 71, so I removed the blankets. By afternoon, temp was 72, so I took the pails out of the box and set them on the cold concrete floor. If I don't see a little temp drop by morning, I'm gonna have to cool water bath these.

This is just my third beer. Prior two were done in the depth of winter, and a day after pitching, generally stayed below 66. I'm concerned with 72 - will my beer taste funky? I plan to add cherries at end of primary, so maybe any fruitiness/esters won't be so noteable?

 

[kyleobie]

I'm in the opposite situation - I'm at 57. It's happily bubbling along, but I don't want the yeast to flocc out too early. Anybody who fermented in low-to-mid 50s have results to share? Thanks for the help.

 

[mikeysab]

I got a DFH 60 going with pacman that I'm a little worried about. I pitched at 60. It was bubbling away 8 hours later. 24 hours after pitching it was 78, so I threw it in a water bath whick brought it to 68. Was that first few hours at a high temp gonna ruin the whole thing, or could I have saved it? I threw a couple bottles of ice in to bring it down a little more. Think it'll be ok?

 

[Yooper]

I got a DFH 60 going with pacman that I'm a little worried about. I pitched at 60. It was bubbling away 8 hours later. 24 hours after pitching it was 78, so I threw it in a water bath whick brought it to 68. Was that first few hours at a high temp gonna ruin the whole thing, or could I have saved it? I threw a couple bottles of ice in to bring it down a little more. Think it'll be ok?

I guess it depends on how long it was over 72ish, and how many esters were formed. I think it'll be ok, but possibly with some fruitiness that wouldn't have been there in the 60s.

 

[mikeysab]

fitting you answered yooper, since it was your recipe. It smells a little fruity in my brew closet. I'm excited aboit it, even though I mighta messed it up a bit. It started rockin so quick, least lag time I've ever had. The thermal activity from the yeast made it warmer than I thought it was gonna get. We'll see in 4 to six weeks.