yeast cake times

[Merleti]

I posted a thread about yeast cake times and Yooper said
"I'm not a fan of the flavor imparted by the yeast of a super long primary"
I am wondering if I had experienced it. I had always attributed it to using a high amount of Pale malt in my recipes. It may also have been the fermentation temps. I didn't factor on the heat of the yeast itself and was shooting for 68 deg in the first few days. I now have been using 64 deg in the first few days. Sorry for the conundrum. What are your experiences?

 

[flars]

I've never experienced a flavor from the yeast from a beer being in the primary a long time. My longest primary has been 4 weeks, if my memory is treating me well. That may not be a super long time though.
What was your problem, that you think a to long primary may have been responsible for?

 

[wildactbrewer]

From what I can gather, a while ago there was this huge "Get it off the yeast!" movement that encouraged brewers to rack to a secondary when the primary stages of fermentation were done. Personally, I've never used a secondary because I think the benefits are minimal compared to the risk of oxidation/infection.

As a generality, modern brewers are abandoning the secondary as leaving it on "dead yeast" really doesn't act as a detriment to the flavor of the finished product. With the size of the batches most of us brew and the newer, more specialized, yeast strains we use; I don't think there is enough yeast die off to worry about that sort of thing.

If you subscribe to the secondary theory then by all means go for it. It will free up a carboy for you and if you wanted to rack on top of some kind of flavoring (i.e. wood, fruit, ect.) this would do the trick. Personally, I don't have a use for it.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

My sense is the " get off the dead yeast" mantra is a left ofver from the bad old days when home brewers were using bread yeast.

 

[Merleti]

flars my problem was when I noticed a funny taste in my beer. I have not had it in the past few batches, but I have cut down on the amount of Pale Malt that I'm using.

I keep my beer in the primary for a month. My thinking is the cake has more yeast than when bottled so it should do a better job at cleaning the beer up. Although I'm not looking at my yeast under a scope I have only gotten one batch that had black die off in it. That happened to be one of my first batches before I was using a controlled chamber. I this a good general rule to follow? Or do you recommend using a scope?

 

[RM-MN]

Your funny taste might have more to do with fermenting at 68 than with the pale malt or time on the yeast. You get different flavors depending on the yeast you use and the temperature at which you ferment.

I think Yooper had a different palate than I because I've never noticed an off taste from leaving my beer on the yeast cake longer. I know that we differ on how long to leave beer to mature because she likes "fresh" beer while I prefer my darker beers to age for quite a while.

 

[Merleti]

The ones I noticed that had a funny taste were a Belgium Pale Ale (7 lbs of pale malt in 6 gals). One that was fermented at 68 deg. and one at room temp that was over 68 deg. The one that eventually cleaned up was the one done at room temp. I also noticed this funny taste in Orlando Brewery's Blonde Ale. I made a clone(9lbs of pale malt in 6 gals) for a friend and it had the same funny taste, but not as much as the one from Orlando Brewery. RM-MN I'm nut funny I'm just crazy due to my ADD and OCD about brewing the best beer I can.