Beer Forum

I'm planning on a 3 stage fermentation with this one. 7days primary @52F then rack to secondary for another 7days @52. For the third stage, I'll be aging it for another 30 days @52F. My question is this... At which point during this fermentation schedule do I raise the temp above 70F to let the yeast clean up any diacetyl?

hopheadmark wrote:7days primary @52F then rack to secondary for another 7days @52. For the third stage, I'll be aging it for another 30 days @52F.

I would suggest starting to ramp the temperature once the activity starts to slow down, then raise it very slowly. Depending on your fermentation, this could be anywhere from 1-3 weeks in. I would suggest not racking at all until after you have raised the temp for the diacetyl rest. The yeast should have no issues for a month+ in primary (provided you pitched enough healthy yeast into a good environment). The multiple stages you suggested will likely just remove some of the yeast you need to eat up the diacetyl during the d-rest, provide potential sources of bacteria to create more diacetyl, and add undesired oxygen.

After transferring, then start your lagering (back to 52F or lower).

Just my $0.02, Good Luck!

If you keep it that cold for lond periods of aging, I doubt you would need a D-rest. When I brew lagers I just let them ferment at the high 40F to low 50F for several weeks and then chill to lager temps. Never had an issue with diacetyl (and I am very sensitive to diacetyl). I would suspect this is the case with the alt yeast.

My concern is why continue the racking? I think that is overkill. You are removing the beer from the yeast that you need to finish the job, especially at those cool temps. Also, everytime you rack over you are exposing it to contamination and oxygen. I would pitch a couple of degrees below the coolside of the recommend temp. Let it slowly ramp up to the low end of the temp range. Hold it there for the active part of fermentation. As it slows down, let it gradually rise to 58-60F and hold it there until fermentation is complete. Let the yeast clean up all the by-products. Then slowly chill it down to lagering temps on the yeast cake for several weeks before transferring off. This is what I recently did with my Dusseldorf Alt. Just my $0.02. Seems like a lot of unneccessary work if you ask me. RDWHAHB!

Hoser wrote:My concern is why continue the racking?

I completely agree. Put the cleanest wort possible into your carboy then pitch. I personally think 52 might be a little chilly for 036 but i may be wrong. Good luck! Drew

Just used this yeast for the first time. Fermented cold due to winter temps in the garage. 47F took it from 1.059 to 1.019 in one week still. Warmed slowly to 69F to allow to finish and absorb Acet/Diacetyl. Will transfer to keg and crash. Drink in two weeks. Gravity samples had a very different smell, can not describe, but taste was clean. No sulfur or apparent Diacetyl. Munich malt/2 row/rye/aromatic/black malt bill.

looking forward to this one. Oh the patience we have as home brewers

Kbar wrote: looking forward to this one. Oh the patience we have as home brewers

I have 5 gallons of alt beer lagering right now, I tasted it when I was taking a gravity reading and can barely keep myself from getting into it...

I used the same yeast and kept it fermenting at 59-60 for 3 weeks or so got down to 1.010 gravity and racked to secondary to lager at 33 degrees. Hope yours turns out as good as mine is tasting, hopheadmark.