Hi,
I was listening the ‘The Jamil Show’ the other day. He mentioned a ‘fast lager’ method which he uses successfully in competitions etc. I forget the name he used for it. I’ve looked, but can not find any references to this method - anyone on line know what the method is? where I can read up on it?
The method that i understand
start at 44*F, oxygenate and pitch
let rise to 50*F, hold and ferment for ~21 days (may be less, done when activity ceases)
rise to 68*F to clean up the diacetyl - about 3 days
?then crash to 32*F for how long? or is this part necessary?
I’ve been brewing Ales for a long time, now have a ferment fridge, so want to brew some lagers.
I’ve been doing that for years. I wrote about it in “Homebrew All Stars”, quoting Mike McDoles method. I also wrote a BYO article (Jan./Feb. 2017) about it a few months back detailing several methods for it. Bottom line is that it works.
I have been following the same method (more or less) as Beerery, and seeing similar results. No issues with diacetyl whatsoever especially when pitched cold (44-45F) with enough yeast to get a healthy ferment underway.
I am not quite at 7 days, but easily have kegs packaged and ready to begin lagering typically by day 10 at the latest.
2206 was my house yeast for quite some time. I ordered a direct pitch of 835 a few months ago and have been playing with that. Seems to work pretty good as well. I try and use sulfury strains as sulfur is a natural antioxidant and helps on the cold side.
I am in agreement that lagers can/are produced in as few, or fewer, days than ales. A typical, average-gravity lager for me is fermented for 5-6 days and then spunded for 3 days to full carbonation, and then into the kegerator it goes. There is certainly some sedimenting time after this, but is generally to the hazy phase after about 2 days. Lagering (i.e. cold aging) takes place while the keg is tapped, and while there is definitely some improvement in the first week (i.e. melding of flavors and dropping of flavor-containing compounds), after that it’s minimal. While I also include low oxygen brewing processes in every beer I make, it shouldn’t make a difference for the timeline if it’s low oxy or not.
Ales for me ferment ~7 days, then are keg primed for ~10days, and then into the kegerator they go. After that, there’s still the same sedimenting and melding phase time.
I start at 48-ish and then start raising the temp 5 degrees per day at high krausen. High krausen is subjective. I try to make sure the fermentation is peaking (about 2 days after the krausen initially forms, very cloudy wort, churning in the fermenter, and lots of bubbles in the air lock).
Usually, I get to 64-65F as fermentation is winding down, but, while yeast is still in suspension. Visually, you see some movement of yeast in the beer but not rapid churning. I leave the beer at this temp a week and then package. I have tried shorter rests, but, I don’t know how short I can go without getting diacetyl. So, I recommend a week rest at 64-65F and experimenting on your own if you want to go shorter.
In total, I can easily go 14 days grain to glass and I believe others when they say they can successfully go faster.
PS. Grain to glass is not the same as properly conditioned for me. My lagers keep improving for a 2-3 weeks in the keg before they are as crisp and delicious as they can get. Sad thing is, I usually don’t wait 2-3 weeks. I start drinking them very young.
Any time above 64F is a diacetyl rest. Diacetyl precursor turns into diacetyl around 64F. Once it is diacetyl, yeast can eat it. The process works best if the diacetyl rest happens when the yeast is still in suspension.
PS. In my experience you need the rest as fermentation ends and at least a few days after fermentation ends.
When pitching a healthy amount of fresh and active yeast, diacetyl is not a thing( I mean it IS a thing but the yeast naturally take care of it).
The traditional cold fermentation profile taught in professional German brewing is that you start at 45f and once you reach 40% extract remaining you LOWER temp so that you reach FG at lagering temps. Even the warm ferment never gets above low 50’s.
This “accelerated” profile that is preached here is actually wrong, this profile originally taught by Nariß, states that in order to use this accelerated profile you need to be using large CCV’s (cylindrical conical vessels, conicals for short) and that hydrostatic pressures and/or fermenting under co2 pressure play a role on ester production (or lack there of). I know this because I translated the 600 page book to English. [emoji12]