What Temp To Pitch

[dirty mac]

I'm about to put a lager on but want to know what temp to pitch yeast. Do I pitch at the brew temp (10-12C) or pitch at around 18C - same as an ale?
:huh:

 

[Voosher]

Either.

If you pitch at higher temps you'll need an ale size starter or ale volumes of dry yeast. You'll need to be confident about then bringing the temp down to lager fermenting temps over the next 12-24hrs while fermentation activates.
If you pitch at lager temps you'll to double the starter or double the pitching rate.

Lager afficianados suggest pitching at the lower temp yields a cleaner fermented beer.




Edit: Looking ahead to post #4 the fact that I can't spell "aficionados" hands the points back to you Shawn... :blink:

 

[Gough]

I'm about to put a lager on but want to know what temp to pitch yeast. Do I pitch at the brew temp (10-12C) or pitch at around 18C - same as an ale?
:huh:

G'day DM,

Two schools of thought on this one. You can pitch at 18 or so to assist a shortened lag time and then drop your ferment to 10ish ASAP once you see signs of fermentation. Or you can chill your wort and your starter to ferment temp or just below and then pitch. This can see extended lag times, particularly if you pitch smaller starters or have not aerated sufficiently.

Personally I like to pitch cold to maximise the 'lager' characteristics in the finished beer. I've used both methods and been much happier with the results when pitching cold, but others swear by the warm pitch then drop method. Like everything in homebrewing it is up to you.

Shawn.

EDIT: Spelling...

 

[Gough]

Beat me by that much Voosher :lol:

 

[Coodgee]

what voosher said. This topic is hotly debated amoungst brewers. If you look on the wyeast or whitelabs site they actually recommend pitching at 20 degrees and bringing the temp down over a few days. but alot of good lager brewers believe it should be pitched at 10-12 degrees. I myself tend to pitch at about 13-14-15 and bring it down to 11 once I see some pressure building in the air lock.

 

[Stagger]

There are a number of ideas on pitching temps, i believe that you should pitch below fermenting temps and allow the temp to rise. Others pitch at say 18-20 and have a fast start to fermentation; each one has an upside and a down side. I believe you can taste the different flavours in both but thats just me. I like a crisp larger and tent to ferment at a lower temp anyway.

Stagger

 

[dirty mac]

Sooooo.. if I pitch cold with my dry yeast I'll need double the amount? I got a large fridge wich not only holds the fermenter but copious amounts of beer as well (who's your daddy) so I aint got any probs with either method. Thanks
guys!!!

 

[Screwtop]

I'm about to put a lager on but want to know what temp to pitch yeast. Do I pitch at the brew temp (10-12C) or pitch at around 18C - same as an ale?
:huh:

What yeast are you using?

Have a look here Fermentis dried yeast

Then remember, yeast does not respond well to thermal shock, so pitch into wort at the same temp as recommended for rehydration. Dried yeast has large colony numbers and includes some yeast nutrient so you can then drop the temp to the recommended fermentation temp (2 sachet for lager). With liquid yeast, I like to pitch at 26c (22c for lagers) and allow 12 hrs for cell division to increase colony rate before dropping to ferment temp.

Fair bit of thought about this, but I believe the info on the above site is good.

 

[warrenlw63]

I've gotta agree with most of the others. Cold pitch is the safest (if not more nerve-wracking) way to go. :beerbang:

Warm pitch will bring faster results. OTOH It maximises the risks on a bigger scale. Fermentation could take off at 18-20 degrees prematurely and it's difficult to attemperate down to 10-12 degrees in any significant amount of time lest you risk shocking the yeast.

Your lager may or may not have excessive fruity esters & excessive diacetyl which lagering most likely won't clean up.

Choice is yours but if you can chill your wort to 15 degrees at the absolute worst I'd go for it. Whitelabs and Wyeast only recommend higher (20-ish) temperatures as a "failsafe" way of product success for the brewer.

Warren -

 

[devo]

I've always pitched at around 25 degree regardless of what I'm brewing and never had any adverse results. I use a fermenting fridge and bath so I guess I'm always getting my brew down to the right temp within 12hrs of pitching.

 

[dirty mac]

picky little premadonas aren't they? "I won't do this then and I won't eat anything if this isn't right"

I guess they are alive and if you treat em right.........you know the rest.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Shocking the yeast, as Warren suggests is right up there in the major concerns area, along with amount of yeast pitched, viability of the yeast and wort aeration (although many argue that wort aeration is not essential - it is to me).
But I digress, I've pitched "warm" into lager wort and had poor results. I've got a Budvar lager starter doing it's thing at 16C right now and I'll be pitching that into a lager, once the starter and the wort are around the 10C mark. I haven't had enough time to step it up to a big assed starter, so I'm not brave enough to drop it down below the wort and pitch it into the wort to come up to fermentation temps, but I'm going to do that with the next brew when I repitch a Czech pils onto the budvar slurry in a couple of weeks from now...
So, I'm with the cold pitching group after making one too many kegs of pear juice! :blink:
Cheers,
TL

 

[Coodgee]

trough Lolly's suggestions are all good. (I'm sure knows alot more than me), but just to temper his experiences, I have pitched at 20 degrees and taken 72 hours to bring the temp down to 11 degrees, and the lager produced is as clean as clean gets. almost too clean due to 64 degree mash temp (but that's a whole nother story).

it's worth a brew just to experiment and see if you can tell the difference.

 

[Trough Lolly]

G'day Coodgee - good points there. There are, of course, many differences not only re temps but also the lager strains themselves. I've even had different results with the same procedure using the same strain!
Out of curiosity, are you saying you got excellent results pitching the Wyeast 2000 Budvar strain at 20C onto a "cool" mashed wort, or was it another liquid yeast???

Cheers,
TL

 

[warrenlw63]

I have pitched at 20 degrees and taken 72 hours to bring the temp down to 11 degrees, and the lager produced is as clean as clean gets. almost too clean due to 64 degree mash temp (but that's a whole nother story).

it's worth a brew just to experiment and see if you can tell the difference.

Coodgee. Just out of curiousity have you been able to get repeatable results warm pitching? If so what strain(s) did you use?

I'm just inclined to think what may work once or twice won't always serve you well. Pitching cold all but assures good results. OTOH if you're consistently getting good lagers with your current method keep it up.

Warren -

 

[Coodgee]

warren et al, the yeast I pitched was white labs WLP830. Ive done two recently by pitching at warm temps for sample a and 14 degrees for sample b. both are cold conitioning now, but I reckon the biggest difference in the flavour is caused by hops and mash temps. neither beer shows any signs of ester formation. at all.

obviously this is just very rough taste testing qualitivity and YMMV as they say.

 

[Benno-5]

I recently tried something different to usual. Normally I would pitch the larger yeast at say 22 deg and then straight to the colder conditions. I have found a lot of lag time with this.

The method I tried was to pitch at 25deg, the leave at 18 for 24 hours. Then transfer to colder conditions (12 deg, thats my garage at this time of year, working on a refrigeration system for this though).

The beer produced was very very good!