2022 what are you brewing?

For my lager, I ferment around 12-13c and at the second week, i’m raising the temp by 1c per day to reach 20 and leave it for another week before cold crash/maturation. They say that you have to start raising the temp when you’re around 55%-60% att. For me, it was always around day 6-7. If you reach 75% att, not a big deal, the yeast still in action and do the diacetyl rest at warmer temp

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@Terry I was responding to Marc and yes, I was referring to 34/70.

A single pack of lager dry yeast for 20 litres is probably on the low side but should still turn out fine. I have done several lagers at 10-12 °C with Lallemand’s Diamond (close relative to W34/70 not so close relative - see here) using a single pack, and they were ok.

I lager at refrigeration temperature in my kegerator (so ~2 °C) for as long as possible (at least 2 weeks, up to 2 months). This will help clarify the beer naturally. You can then transfer to a serving keg.

What happens if it completely ferments out before you get a chance to raise the temp. Is there a way to get rid of the diacetyl after that?

Yeast is still present in the beer. The metabolism will have slowed down, but it will still be able to reduce diacetyl at a lower rate. Diacetyl reduction also takes place at cooler temperatures, but much slower.

Here is a nice article on the subject: Controlling Diacetyl - Brew Your Own.

Thanks guys, I’m away at work and got my wife to check gravity using my tilt. ( I still haven’t got my pi set up) I was at 1.016 yesterday afternoon. I have an inkbird 308 wifi that I can use to control my heating belt so I just bumped the temp up 1 degree.
When this one is ready to drink I plan on brewing a pseudo lager using the same recipe and substituting lutra dry yeast and compare them.

I do the same for a diacetyl rest… that is, I ferment at 10-12 for about a week then let the temperature rise up to room temp 20-21 and I leave it there for at least 48 hours. (I don’t bother with the 1 degree per day thing, that’s really not necessary IMO.)

I end up lagering in my serving kegs. Since I own 16 kegs, my lagers go in and get stored at approx 5C until I need them in my serving fridge which is usually several weeks after getting kegged. By then, they are crystal clear.

BTW, I’ve always used Irish Moss 10 mins before the end of the boil. For the recent MOB/Beau’s Mystery Box competition, they had Whirlfloc Tablets which I ended up using in one of my lagers and it didn’t work nearly as well as Irish Moss.

Denis

Primary at 10 degC, some yeast can be slow to start at this temp.
Diacetyl rest at 2/3 FG, 14 degC. Usually leave it there until FG is reach.

Lagering at -1degC for minimum 1 month. If less, I add biofine to help clear it out.

I use a Inkbird wifi + IFTTT + Google calendar to schedule temperature change automatically. There is also method on the net to link it to a Tilt, not been there yet!

I’ve read that the slow increase in temperature is to avoid a large suck back on the airlock. I do like the idea of lagering in the serving keg. It’s something I debating doing on my lagers. Currently doing the diacetyl rest on my first homebrew lager so I still have a little time to decided if I lager in the keg or carboy.

Hi Denis. If I copy your procedure to a bottling setup, would it look like this or will the room-temp carbing period throw things off? It seems like I would be bottling too early but in your description it looks like fermentation is done after the diacetyl rest.

  • 1 week at 10-12C
  • 2 days at 20-21C
  • Bottle
  • Let carb for 2 weeks
  • Refrigerate for several weeks or until thirsty

Mmmm… which Denis? :wink:

I personally don’t bottle anymore and just force carbonate. And in fact, I have so many taps and kegs that I usually just leave the keg connected to gas and a tap and wait until it’s fully carbonated.

Nonetheless, your timing will depend totally on recipe and yeast performance. If you can take a gravity reading after the first week to confirm that primary fermentation is indeed finished, you’ll also be able to taste it and see if you need much of a diacetyl rest. I usually go at least 10 to 14 days when fermenting at 10-12C and often even longer than that since fermentation is pretty slow at that temperature. You’ll probably see airlock activity when you warm it up but that’s not fermentation picking up again, it’s just gas coming out of the warming beer.

Denis

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