Saflager 34/70 Likes It Cold

[SJW]

I am doing a trial Lager to see if i can ferment in my beer fridge without the need for an extra thermastat, as the Mrs needs the freezer for stuff like food to feed my kids, go figure. + i dont want to spend $90.
Anyway, i got a 3kg tin of ESB Bock + 1kg of Dex & malt mix, to OOMPH it up a bit and made a 15 litre special.
I pitched the 34/70 at 25 deg C and left it for 12 hours till it kicked off, then wrapped the shinny silver car windscreen shade around the fermenter and tossed it in the fridge with it set on its warmest setting. And to my surprise it took 4 day to slowly come down to 9 deg, thats with the digital fish tank thermometer taped to the side of the fermenter. So as a test when it hit 9 deg C i took it out and dropped the sensor into the wort to find that it was 0.5 deg C warmer. So I will leave in the fridge for 7 days at 9 or so deg. the take out for a 3 day rest then rack. The point of all this is just to say that the old 34/70 seems to like it nice and cool. I wonder how low it would work till?

STEPHEN

 

[SJW]

Just a quick question, How long do you guys ferment your Lagers when fermenting them at the lower temp's?

 

[dreamboat]

A quick answer is to wait until they are finished.

Personally i rack to secondary at around a week, then leave it in secondary for another week. Maybe a Diacetyl rest in there, then drop the fridge temp down under 3C for a month or so. Usually the yeast has finished around 10 - 16 days.


dreamboat

 

[normell]

Hi Stephen
Good idea to start the Saflager a bit warmer, maybe not THAT warm, but it gets it going pretty smart tho.
Have done a brew down around 4*C, which took about a fortnight in primary, but was worth it for the crisp taste.
If you want to start fermenting at a lower temp. you may need more than 1 Saflager yeast, see
http://www.fermentis.com/FO/EN/pdf/SaflagerS-23.pdf
Normell

 

[pint of lager]

It is always a good idea to test these things.

At four days somewhere between 25 and 9 degrees, it may have already finished.

Check the sg.

Next lager you do, aim to pitch the yeast at the ferment temp. There was a thread discussing pitching temps of lagers a while ago on this board, have a read of that.

 

[sluggerdog]

I've only used saflager once but I left it in at similar temperatures to you (started at 22C down to 8-10C in a few days) left it in primary for 2 weeks, the rest for 3 days and then into CC for a few weeks.