I may have been doing my CC wrongly

[Bribie G]

I haven't been on BYO magazine for ages and just having a poke around there. I came across an eye opener re lagering and cold conditioning.

For yonks I've been fermenting at whatever appropriate temperature for a style, then dropping to -1C for 10 days in my Kegmate/Tomohawk fridge that is used exclusively for fermentation.

I came across this snippet on BYO and my ears pricked up:

We then chill the beer to 38 °F (4 °C) and hold at this temperature for about 10 days. The lager yeast is still active at this temperature and diacetyl and acetaldehyde reduction continues during this time period. The beer is then cooled to 30 °F (-1 °C) for at least two days before filtration or racking in the case of unfiltered lagers.

I know that ale yeast will also tick along very slowly at low temperatures as I get a lot of free gas generated in my kegs with many of those slow attenuating Wyeast UK yeasts at 8 degrees. However that's interesting information as I'll be doing a lager or two this winter. In other words by chilling right down to sub zero for 10 days and knocking out the yeast I'm probably not doing myself any favours.

Full article.

 

[pat86]

Thanks for posting - will try this out as I have been doing more like 1-3 degrees most CC though don't have much experience with lager yeasts.

Would you or Batz or any other experienced hands modify the temps or time when making an Alt? Using ale yeast that is.

How would you alter this if you were making a faux lager using an ale yeast like Nottingham or even wwyeast Kolsch yeast or a German ale yeast that we would ferment on the cool side (but still a few degrees higher than a lager?)

Edit. New Q: any significant difference between -1 and 0c at the second stage? Just cautious of freezing if the temp goes +/- 1degree, I assume the colder it is the faster the beer clears so no biggie?


Cheers,