As you know, I’ve been brewing my lagers with Wyeast 2352 since the PC release last October. I thought I knew it well, but I guess I’m still learning. For several batches I fermented at 50 till 50% then 68. Had pretty good results. But last time I started at 48F. That was the batch that after 4 days still had 0% ADF, so I pitched 1056 that I had on hand. We are drinking those now and they are amazingly lager-like. I don’t detect any ale esters. Hmmm.
This past brew day I pitched propagated 2352 cultures at high krausen as normal, and again at 48F. Today is day 3 and I’m just starting to get activity. The German Helles Exportbier has dropped from 1.056 to 1.050… I think I found the issue. 48F is too cold for that strain. I knew that Wyeast says 52-62F but how often are their suggestions dead on? Seems to be the problem this time though.
Next time I will start at 52F and see if my hunch is correct.
Its crazy sometimes how just when you think you know something, you still have more to learn
Interesting. I’ve been fermenting this yeast strain around 49-50F with no problems, but I may boost it to 51-52F or so on my next go-around.
I usually start my fermentations at 45-46F and let them rise to about 50F and the 2352 seems to be fine with doing that with about a 24 hour lag time.
I have not brewed with this strain yet, but I have read elsewhere (homebrewtalk IIRC) about others saying it was sluggish below 50F and that 52F was preferred for a more classic lager ferment.
It drops off sharply apparently. I normally have about 8-12 hr lag (first sign of visible activity) at 50F but at 48 its days. I’ll try 52 next just for kicks but I’ve been happy with 50.
I assume 2352 is believed to be Augusteiner. I’m going to try it at 52F next, but my gut feeling is that Augusteiner uses it at 50F. Maining because it seems more likely that they would do 10C rather than 11.11C lol
I could see that. But also keep in mind, if this is their “house” strain they have been using for hundreds of years it is has probably acclimated to fermenting at a lower temp than the reported lab produced strain will do effectively.
True, but I doubt Wyeast got their culture 100s of years ago [emoji12]
I’ve done really well with this yeast for multiple batches at 50F, I was just surprised to see how a two degree drop effected it so much. I almost have to try it at 52 now. If dropping 2f did that I wonder what adding 2f will do.
