I made a Munich Helles over the weekend and pitched at 46ish. I bumped up the keezer to 49 today. I will bump it one more notch tomorrow to settle at 50. I have a Johnson contoller that has an operating range of +/- 2 degrees. I’m using a slurry of WLP830.
What’s the consensus on pitch/ferm temps for this lager?
I like to ferment cold, the warmest I go with my lager yeasts is 48 with a 1 degree differential. Thats how I roll.
48 … but what you are doing Ron is fine.
I was thinking of holding at 46 but changed my mind last minute. This is a third generation yeast and I want to see how long I can stretch it out. Maybe 10 or more generations…we’ll see.
I’m thinking about a Dopplebock next. :-\
agree with the others. I like to pitch cool --mid high 40s-- and gradually bring up temp to low 50s, which sounds consistent with your approach. Ester formation is driven mostly by growth in first two days, during which your temps should have been sufficiently cool to suppress.
I don’t think you’ll want to go to 10 generations:
http://www.asbcnet.org/journal/abstracts/2003/0205-01a.htm
It’s been a while since I read the whole article, but I seem to remember a rule of thumb of 7 generations for lager yeasts. If I have time I’ll go through it again.
Good info Tom. Thanks.
I’d like to read that study.
I am curious to find how many I can get without any noticeable degredation of beer quality.
47-48df is what I’ve been doing for all my light lagers, ramping up at the end to finsh out.
don’t forget you can branch out each generation quite a bit and keep that yeast going for a long time - I usually save the slurry I don’t repitch from Gen 1 and both Gen 2s (assuming I split Gen 1 in half) which gives me a lot to work with. in fact, I never even use all of it - wind up dumping some.
Another good idea Paul!
Currently i am pitching at 46F and keep it there for a few days.
I have to say that lag time is very long and I would consider this as a negative issue.
Pitching at 46F and let it raise to 48F should be just fine.
I am currently experiencing a 2+ day lag which is typical but I expect it to be on it’s way any time now.
I pitched Monday morning and only today (3 days later) I could see strong sign of fermentation.
It is nerve racking.
I might have to start fermenting Ales 
Finally last night I had pretty good fermentation also three days later. Lagers require patience. Something that doesn’t come naturally for me.
Has hell frozen over? :o
I think it may be on it’s way. 
Just can not take a pressure any more… ;D
My last hell(es) did freeze over. Wish I’d thought of this pun, could have named it so! fortunately the beer turned out fine after it thawed and finished lagering.
funny…didn’t think of that one.
Sorta along the same vein . .
What’s everyone’s experience as far as lager exothermic increase during active fermentation? About the same as ales? In the past I set the ferment chamber 3 to 5 degrees lower to compensate for what I guessed was going on inside the fermenter. Now that I finally have a thermowell, I guess I’ll find out for sure! Just curious on other’s experiences.
I do have temp probe on the fermenter so I do not know.
You are growing less yeast so In theory would not you generate less yeast?