Wyeast 2112 Cal. Lager At Lager Temps

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rough60

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Hi all,
Using it in a Cal common and was thinking of dumping an American Lager on the cake after kegging and letting it ferment at about 10-12 degs.
Anyone tried this yeast at those temps?
Cheers.
 
Yeah, it will work.

You'll need at least 2 weeks for it to ferment out though. Results in a very clean, malty beer. Doesn't attenuate greatly though.

Warren -
 
Hi all,
Using it in a Cal common and was thinking of dumping an American Lager on the cake after kegging and letting it ferment at about 10-12 degs.
Anyone tried this yeast at those temps?
Cheers.
I used it once at about 12-14 deg, and it was fine. Quite a clean yeast IMO, though probably not as good as some of the other strains in a lager/pilsner (in terms of clean lager flavour and attenuation).
You certainly should have a good quantity of yeast to ferment at lager temps pitching some of the yeast cake.
 
Dragging up the most appropriate thread for my questions. Well, the OP hasn't been seen since October, so I won't ask a question directly.

I'm fermenting my first Cal. Common (with 2112) at the moment @ 14*C, has been in there for the last 10 days, but seems to be sitting at 1.020 (expected 1.015). Roused it last night and hopefully it will hurry up and finish - a line of cubes has formed behind it! Ready or not it's hitting a keg on Saturday morning.

Anyway, the next cube in line is a CAP and I'm planning on dumping that on the entire yeastcake and fermenting at 12*C. Does anyone have any opinions of how well this works?
 
Just bought a pack of this myself so I'm interested in how it goes this low as well. Ferment temp is recomended from 14-20, so I reckon it might have trouble attentuating and flock out early. Maybe rack & up the temp a few degrees after a week or so? Dunno, this is the first Lager yeast I've bought in years and will be the first one fermented within correct temp range
 
Just bought a pack of this myself so I'm interested in how it goes this low as well. Ferment temp is recomended from 14-20, so I reckon it might have trouble attentuating and flock out early. Maybe rack & up the temp a few degrees after a week or so?
Good guess.

I pitched a CAP onto the yeastcake 9/1/10 and after about an hour lag time ferment kicked off big time @ 12*C. A week later the SG stopped moving at 1.030 (about half-way done, aiming for 1.014 IIRC). Gave it a big swirl and raised it up to 16*C, but I'm not seeing a lot of movement, so I may have to sanitize a spoon and really stir it up soon.

My cal. common finished a bit sweet too, so I'm guessing this yeast flocs pretty well. I'll keep it in mind when I do the next revision of the cal. common, and make sure I've got enough ferment fridge time booked.
 
I pitched a CAP onto the yeastcake 9/1/10 and after about an hour lag time ferment kicked off big time @ 12*C. A week later the SG stopped moving at 1.030 (about half-way done, aiming for 1.014 IIRC). Gave it a big swirl and raised it up to 16*C, but I'm not seeing a lot of movement, so I may have to sanitize a spoon and really stir it up soon.

Just give it a little time at 16deg (3-4 days) and make sure you knock out any CO2 from your hydro sample as this screws your readings when doing lagers as the beer retains more CO2 at lower temps. I had a week where i was reading the same figure and it just ended up being the co2 keeping it up :rolleyes: . Use a refrac if you have one to get further accuracy.

If you see no further signs of action and only have a few points to knock off (5~) just pull it out of the fridge as long as your ambients are not too high (e.g.20deg) you should hit terminal without an issue.

Ive noticed this yeast slows down at the end of fermentation and a diacetyl rest to knock off the last few points helps. Dont worry about off falvours with a diacetyl rest as its too late in the fermentation to be of any real concern.
 
Just give it a little time at 16deg (3-4 days) and make sure you knock out any CO2 from your hydro sample as this screws your readings when doing lagers as the beer retains more CO2 at lower temps. I had a week where i was reading the same figure and it just ended up being the co2 keeping it up :rolleyes: . Use a refrac if you have one to get further accuracy.
Already using a refrac. Used a hydro to double check that it wasn't fooling me (it was accurate).

If you see no further signs of action and only have a few points to knock off (5~) just pull it out of the fridge as long as your ambients are not too high (e.g.20deg) you should hit terminal without an issue.
16 points is still a fair way to go. I'm planning on leaving it in the fridge (perhaps after a stir) until late this week, when the temp is likely to climb a little. Then I'll be putting the mild ale in the ferment fridge (currently at a very suitable ambient temp) and letting the cal. common warm up for a d/rest. Then some finings, a crash chill, into a keg, and then I'll know how it went.

Anyhoo, I did get half of the ferment done at about 12 with 2112, so I hope to have some idea of what the OP was asking.
 
Why faff about fermenting a Cal Common so cool?
The beer is fermented at ale temps for the ester character and ideal fermentation characteristics.
The yeast just happens to be classified as a lager strain.
Ferment at 18-20*C, no wukkas then with attenuation etc.

tdh

I'm fermenting my first Cal. Common (with 2112) at the moment @ 14*C, has been in there for the last 10 days, but seems to be sitting at 1.020 (expected 1.015). Roused it last night and hopefully it will hurry up and finish - a line of cubes has formed behind it! Ready or not it's hitting a keg on Saturday morning.
 
16 points is still a fair way to go. I'm planning on leaving it in the fridge (perhaps after a stir) until late this week, when the temp is likely to climb a little. Then I'll be putting the mild ale in the ferment fridge (currently at a very suitable ambient temp) and letting the cal. common warm up for a d/rest. Then some finings, a crash chill, into a keg, and then I'll know how it went.

Anyhoo, I did get half of the ferment done at about 12 with 2112, so I hope to have some idea of what the OP was asking.

Hopefully the rouse should see it through. You didnt have an overly high mash temperature did you as the attenuation isnt super with this yeast (67-71%) so you might end up around 1.016 with a low mash temp and anything up to 1.020 if your mash temp was high.

just throwing ideas around. ;)
 
Why faff about fermenting a Cal Common so cool?
The beer is fermented at ale temps for the ester character and ideal fermentation characteristics.
The yeast just happens to be classified as a lager strain.
Ferment at 18-20*C, no wukkas then with attenuation etc.
I wanted to ferment the cal. common at the cold end of the scale (14*C) - I don't see the problem with that. Anyway, that's off-topic for this thread, where we are currently discussing fermenting even colder (I've dumped a CAP on the yeast cake and got half-way through the ferment at 12*C.)
 
Hopefully the rouse should see it through. You didnt have an overly high mash temperature did you as the attenuation isnt super with this yeast (67-71%) so you might end up around 1.016 with a low mash temp and anything up to 1.020 if your mash temp was high.
Can't recall right now, but I reckon I hit 64*C for most of the mash. Recipe through BeerSmith gave me a predicted FG of either 1.014 or 1.017 (with three beers going at the moment, numbers seem to blend). 1.030 is certainly too high.

I'll report in at the end of the week and let you know how it ended up.
 
Care to share the recipe QB? I'll be making a CC in a week or two and the only recipe I have is from BYO mag. Be good to have a few at hand and decide where to go from there
 
HB79,

I made the Brewing Classic Styles Recipe (not sure if that is the same as the BYO recipe), and that was a pretty tasty brew.

Cheers SJ
 
Care to share the recipe QB? I'll be making a CC in a week or two and the only recipe I have is from BYO mag. Be good to have a few at hand and decide where to go from there
I more or less followed the recipe in How To Brew (I think...). If not, I'll post the recipe later. I'm still in need of someone to taste it and tell me how to improve it.
 
As for fermenting lower than recommended....this from the Wyeast website:

"This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation."

They don't define what "cold" is.....so its open to interpretation of course. It already has low attenuation so would be concerned about fermenting even on the low side of the recommended range, depending on your grist.
 
As for fermenting lower than recommended....this from the Wyeast website:

"This strain is not recommended for cold temperature fermentation."

They don't define what "cold" is.....so its open to interpretation of course. It already has low attenuation so would be concerned about fermenting even on the low side of the recommended range, depending on your grist.
Fermenter samples taste fine so far, so I suppose it's not devastating to do so. The floc rate is clearly an issue with fermenting so cold - as I've experienced, but only half-way through ferment - and I am repairing that by warming it back up to the suitable range and probably giving it a stir. With any luck, I will obtain even more of the 'lager' quality from this yeast in this way.

Just having fun experimenting. :beer:
 
HB79,

I made the Brewing Classic Styles Recipe (not sure if that is the same as the BYO recipe), and that was a pretty tasty brew.

Cheers SJ

Cheers SJ, will have a look at it. The BYO one is an Anchor Steam clone


I more or less followed the recipe in How To Brew (I think...). If not, I'll post the recipe later. I'm still in need of someone to taste it and tell me how to improve it.


Cool, thanks. I must have missed that recipe the million and one times I read HTB
 
I brewed a CAP a week or so ago... OG of 1.050 and now settled at 1.012 fermented @ 14C. Apparent attenuation is 75%.

Tube sample tasted ok, certainly no fruitiness. Will rack and CC for a bit to try and clear it up.
 
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