Brewing a lager and an ale at the same time? in the same fridge???

[billc68]

I have two brews waiting to be brewed here...

I have an Irish Red recipe using Wyeast Irish Ale yeast 1084 and a kit, a Festa Brew (23L or wort, nothing to add but yeast) using a Wyeast California Lager 2112.

I am thinking I can brew these at the same time. Now I have learned that brewing at the coolest possible temperature your yeast will tolerate will yield the best brew. So how do the more experience guys feel about this idea?...

The Irish Ale yeast is good from 62-72F while the Cal Lager is 58-68.

What if I set the fermentation chamber at 62? Then dropped it back to 60 or so once fermentation takes off (knowing the yeast will generate some heat)

I am thinking a couple weeks fermentation, then secondary the Ale at room temp and the lager at lagering temps.

 

[billc68]

Also, where can I find info regarding Diacetyl rests? and whether or not a specific yeast would require one. I am on the Wyeast site now, but can not find anything.

 

[RCCOLA]

This will work, but may produce a few more esters in the lager than it would have if fermented cooler. I've fermented w/ w-34/70 lager yeast @ 60F & it was very clean.
The key thing is to pitch the lager cold. I would pitch the yeast on it @ 55-58F even if it had to sit in the fridge overnight to get it that cool. Just make sure that you make an appropriately sized starter for it. A minimum of 3 qts. IMO. I usually make a 3X3 (6qt) stepped starter for my lagers and they ferment out in ~ a week at 48-52F.

As far as a d-rest, I just wait until the fermentation starts to slow (by airlock activity), take a hydro sample, and then start to let the temp rise to room temp.--as long as the ferm is at least 75% done. The bulk of the fermentation is done at that point, so you have no worries about problems from the rising temps. It'll be done fermenting B4 it reaches room temp anyway. This will take care of any diacetyl present. Then let it sit at that temp. for a couple days, check the grav to make sure it has finished up, then rack to secondary.

 

[billc68]

What about racking my ale to a secondary and letting that sit at the mid 50s for two weeks while my lager ferments? Or is that pointless? Should my secondary be at fermentation temps?

 

[RCCOLA]

I wouldn't let the ale sit at those temps until after it had sat at ferm. temps (on the cake) for two weeks. Don't want to put the yeast to sleep too early as it will still be improving the flavor of the beer for a couple weeks.

If you pitch a large, healthy starter, your lager will be done in ~ 5 days, and can be safely racked to secondary at ~ 8-10days (after the d-rest).

Greg Noonan stated that HBers let their lagers sit on the cake for too long and that lagers don't really benefit from an extended primary. For me--when it's done (and I'm sure it's done) it goes to secondary.