I have to wonder at what point the OPs eyes glazed over
Anyway its an interesting enough subject, and there is lots of room for discussion and opinion so I might as well stick my 2 cents worth in.
Lots of very good beer gets made by just pitching the yeast, letting it work until its done the job then packaging the beer.
All things being equal, given a reasonable pitch rate, sensible brewing temperatures and that you dont wait until the yeast starts to break down mission accomplished, you made beer.
There is no need to rack beer but there are circumstances where I certainly would: -
If I wanted to crop the yeast cake and keep it for reuse. In this case I would rack early say 24-36 hours in, the intention being to leave any trub (residual hot and cold break, hop fragments and dead yeast) in the first fermenter and to transfer as much healthy working yeast to the second fermenter as possible. When the beer is Cask Clear (when I can see my finger print right through a demijohn) you would still have around 10,000 cells/mL (more than enough for conditioning), package the beer and process the yeast cake for reuse.
Were I brewing a very high gravity beer I would be looking for a lot longer yeast contact time, so rack when the krausen falls (roughly through the ferment), the intention being to provide a reasonable amount of yeast that is young and healthy so it doesnt degrade under the beer while I wait for it to clean up the last of the sugars and the metabolic side issues produced early in the ferment.
At the other end of the scale, in a commercial lager brewery you could expect to see four yeast drops from the conical fermenter over a standard 21-28 day fermentation cycle.
None of the above is The Right Answer there isnt one, you need to look at all the variables, what you are brewing and what you want the yeast to accomplish, I suppose Im saying plan youre brewing.
Working with your yeast to make the beer you want to drink should give the best results.
MHB
PS
Im very disappointed with the Yeast Book, there are some gaping holes in the content, i.e. the shortage of good information on dry yeast, lets face it there is more dry yeast used on any alternate Thursday than White labs sell in a month yet it hardly rates a mention. Sadly I think the book is largely self serving, that is to say its good for White Labs.
There is some very good content, but it anit Holy Writ.
M
Anyway its an interesting enough subject, and there is lots of room for discussion and opinion so I might as well stick my 2 cents worth in.
Lots of very good beer gets made by just pitching the yeast, letting it work until its done the job then packaging the beer.
All things being equal, given a reasonable pitch rate, sensible brewing temperatures and that you dont wait until the yeast starts to break down mission accomplished, you made beer.
There is no need to rack beer but there are circumstances where I certainly would: -
If I wanted to crop the yeast cake and keep it for reuse. In this case I would rack early say 24-36 hours in, the intention being to leave any trub (residual hot and cold break, hop fragments and dead yeast) in the first fermenter and to transfer as much healthy working yeast to the second fermenter as possible. When the beer is Cask Clear (when I can see my finger print right through a demijohn) you would still have around 10,000 cells/mL (more than enough for conditioning), package the beer and process the yeast cake for reuse.
Were I brewing a very high gravity beer I would be looking for a lot longer yeast contact time, so rack when the krausen falls (roughly through the ferment), the intention being to provide a reasonable amount of yeast that is young and healthy so it doesnt degrade under the beer while I wait for it to clean up the last of the sugars and the metabolic side issues produced early in the ferment.
At the other end of the scale, in a commercial lager brewery you could expect to see four yeast drops from the conical fermenter over a standard 21-28 day fermentation cycle.
None of the above is The Right Answer there isnt one, you need to look at all the variables, what you are brewing and what you want the yeast to accomplish, I suppose Im saying plan youre brewing.
Working with your yeast to make the beer you want to drink should give the best results.
MHB
PS
Im very disappointed with the Yeast Book, there are some gaping holes in the content, i.e. the shortage of good information on dry yeast, lets face it there is more dry yeast used on any alternate Thursday than White labs sell in a month yet it hardly rates a mention. Sadly I think the book is largely self serving, that is to say its good for White Labs.
There is some very good content, but it anit Holy Writ.
M
