Holy Smokes - Lager Fermented In 5 Days!

[mikec]

So last week I brewed up an Asahi style lager.
Made up a 2L starter (3 steps) with WY2007, for approx 310 billion yeasties, using Yeastcalc. This being what was required to ferment 20L of 1.041 lager.
Pitched last Friday night (20th Oct) and maintained at 12 C in the fridge.

Now this is my first all grain lager, and I was expecting it to take a fair while to ferment. Intended bringing it up for a diacetyl rest when it hit around 1.016.
Took a reading today (5 days) - 1.010!
It's not quite finished - it should go down to about 1.004, but faaark I expected it to take longer to get this far.

Is WY2007 known to be a bit of a ripper? It took 3 days to wake up in the first step of the starter, but was very happy after that.
Or maybe my readings are off?

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Sounds good to me mate. You should have yourself a nice crisp clean beer.

All the BS about lagers taking 2 weeks to hit FG are just from people who cant bothered pitching enough yeast.

Relax and concentrate on your packaging now.

 

[kevin_smevin]

Sounds good to me mate. You should have yourself a nice crisp clean beer.

All the BS about lagers taking 2 weeks to hit FG are just from people who cant bothered pitching enough yeast.

Relax and concentrate on your packaging now.

Agreed

 

[mikec]

Excellent, cheers guys.

 

[QldKev]

I always though the issue with lagers was not the ferment time, it was the lagering time?

QldKev

 

[labels]

Yeah, with a high pitch rate it's going to go pretty quickly. You might find you need another five days to finish off now that primary fermentation is over as it slooooooows right down, could even take longer.

Steve

 

[jimi]

I always though the issue with lagers was not the ferment time, it was the lagering time?

QldKev

Like Kev's saying, you want to give it more time than just getting to an approx FG. Some lagers change a hell of a lot during lagering. Keep sampling and don't feel you have to rush anything

 

[labels]

Like Kev's saying, you want to give it more time than just getting to an approx FG. Some lagers change a hell of a lot during lagering. Keep sampling and don't feel you have to rush anything

Making lagers are definitely for those of us that can last longer than three minutes. They take patience and care and more patience.

 

[mikec]

Yep, understand the lagering time too. I'm making this as a summer/Xmas beer.Was just surprised at how fast the first stage went.Building a stir plate and calculating correct pitching rates certainly has its benefits. And this was from half a pack of 4 month old liquid yeast!

 

[labels]

Yep, understand the lagering time too. I'm making this as a summer/Xmas beer.Was just surprised at how fast the first stage went.Building a stir plate and calculating correct pitching rates certainly has its benefits. And this was from half a pack of 4 month old liquid yeast!

I am quite sure your beer will turn out perfect but keep in mind lager yeast strains mutate very easily and quickly. You stated you have already put this yeast through three steps before pitching so it's re-use x 4 in a sense.

Because the re-use (as such) was at stepping stage I reckon you're about 95% certain of a clean lager but from personal experience I would not reculture it. From what I have read and undesrtand plus experience, diacetyl production can triple with each reuse. Once you got diacetyl in a lager at well above taste thresholds - that's it, it's in there and there is no way to remove it. Excessive amounts are impossible to remove. No amount of diaceytyl resting will get rid of it and it the taste threshold is very noticable at quite low concentrations.


Steve

 

[mikec]

Duly noted!
Hadn't thought about the multiple "re-using" factor of stepping up.
I rarely re-culture anyway, usually split a yeast pack 3 ways or so and then buy more.

 

[Brewman_]

Sounds great, a big yeast pitch is the key. Bye the way may I ask what temperature was your wort when you pitched the yeast?
Fear

 

[mikec]

Sounds great, a big yeast pitch is the key. Bye the way may I ask what temperature was your wort when you pitched the yeast?
Fear

Wort was at 12.The yeast starter had been cooled, decanted, then brought up to 12 prior to pitching.