Diacetyl Rest

[Brewser_]

If this post is somewhere else please direct me to it, otherwise I was wondering how long to do a diacetyl rest for an American pilsner OG 1.050. Its at 1.017 now and I still have a bit of krausen. Do I rest it until the FG is met and then lager or is there a set time to rest depending on the OG. Thanks

 

[jdauria]

Usually a 2 to 3 day diacetyl rest is enough. Should be at 66-68 degrees. My understanding, from something I heard on the Brewing Network, is that the diacetyl rest should be done when fermentation is 75% complete.

So assuming your final gravity is like 1.010...1.050-1.010 = 40 points, 75% of that is 30...so the rest would be when you hit 1.020. So you probably should do the rest now. The warmer temps during that period will complete fermentation and probably drop your krausen too.

 

[dobe12]

You're gonna get a lot of different answers with this question. My SOP for a lager is to pitch around 48-50F and hold for 7 days. Around day 7-8 I slowly start raising the temp 1-2 degrees per day until it get up to 64F (takes about 1-2 weeks) then hold for 2-3 days. From there I drop down to lagering temps for the duration.

EDIT: Sorry, just read your question again and thought I'd give a more direct answer. At 1.017, its sounds like now would be a good time for a d-rest. Hold in the low to mid 60's for a day or two.

Many would even argue that a d-rest should only be done if needed. Give the beer a taste and see if it needs a d-rest. As I already stated, I give all my lagers a rest. I figure why not.

 

[Bearclaw215]

I'm the other side of dobe's coin. I only rest if I detect the diacetyl during tasting. It depends a good bit on what yeast you used to. Some can pump it out while other produce very minimal amounts.

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[Brewser_]

I guess I should have specified, I'm using Saflager S-23 yeast. This is my first lagered beer diacetyl is a butterscotch flavor correct?

 

[SpeedYellow]

The only time I've ever had major diacetyl, I had done a 3 day d-rest. A couple weeks at 65F fixed that batch. Since then, I do 5-day d-rests. Hey, they're lagers, and you can't be in a hurry when making lagers anyway!


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[BigFloyd]

I'm the other side of dobe's coin. I only rest if I detect the diacetyl during tasting. It depends a good bit on what yeast you used to. Some can pump it out while other produce very minimal amounts.

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Are you heating the sample before tasting? If not, you aren't going to taste the buttery diacetyl flavor because the alpha acetolactate precursor hasn't been converted to diacetyl. About all that can likely be detected in an unheated sample at that point is a sort of slick mouthfeel.

I'll start checking gravity on a lager at around 7-8 days. If it's at 75-80% of the way from OG to FG, I'll adjust the controller from 50*F to 64*F and leave it there 4-5 days before even considering another gravity reading and tasting. Once it hits stable FG, it gets cold crashed (in the primary) for a week then to a keg for lagering.