WLP830 lager process

[SudsyPaul]

So I finally got around to making a lager, and I'm not sure on the details of the "lagering" process.

I'm planning on the following schedule:

1. 14 days at 50f
2. 2-3 days at 68f
3. Cold crash down to 35f over 2-3 days
4. Rack off yeast into keg, hit with gelatine, return to 35f ferm chamber

Does this make sense? I'm not 100% sure whether or not gelatine affects the lagering process. I'll be doing a co2 purge for the keg, but I won't be carbonating... I'll just let it sit for 6 weeks, then carb it over the course of 2 weeks.

For the record, I'm using this yeast to make a Vienna SMaSH lager. Used 5 gal of wort to also make a French Saison - which might be a bit closer to a Biere de Garde with the cooler fermentation temps (18c)

 

[Pie_Man]

That's just fine. I did a pilsner with this yeast a little while ago and my fermetnation schedule was fairly similar. I did the d-rest at 11 days into fermentation, basically when I noticed the krausen falling and fermentation activity had drastically subsided. This beer came out crystal clear without gelatine. I cold crashed/lagered in the primary for ten days then kegged and carbonated. After the first few pours, the beer was clear. If the beer is hazy, or you just want to ensure clear beer, you can certainly add gelatine prior to carbonation, or even after/during carbonation.

 

[BigFloyd]

So I finally got around to making a lager, and I'm not sure on the details of the "lagering" process.

I'm planning on the following schedule:

1. 14 days at 50f
2. 2-3 days at 68f
3. Cold crash down to 35f over 2-3 days
4. Rack off yeast into keg, hit with gelatine, return to 35f ferm chamber

Does this make sense? I'm not 100% sure whether or not gelatine affects the lagering process. I'll be doing a co2 purge for the keg, but I won't be carbonating... I'll just let it sit for 6 weeks, then carb it over the course of 2 weeks.

For the record, I'm using this yeast to make a Vienna SMaSH lager. Used 5 gal of wort to also make a French Saison - which might be a bit closer to a Biere de Garde with the cooler fermentation temps (18c)

With lagers, aerating the wort and pitching TWICE the yeast that you would for a comparable ale are very important. Pitch into wort that's been chilled to 45-47*F.

Yeast don't follow a time table. You'll want to bring it up for a diacetyl rest once the gravity gets 75-80% of the way from OG to expected FG. I start checking mine at 7 days. I pitch plenty of yeast and bubble O2, so I've have had a few batches ready to warm up to 64*F at the 7-day gravity check.

2-3 days cold crash isn't really enough to clear a lager. A week will yield you a better result. Gelatin won't affect the lagering.

What hops are you using for the Vienna SMASH? I did one last year using Amarillo and it was yummy.

 

[SudsyPaul]

Yeah, I made a Biere de Garde with the WLP830, but it fermented at 65F, but I used that cake to make my lager.

I'll start taking readings in a few days... it took a couple days before it took off, so I'm still a bit away from giving it a d-rest. I have a 2micron aerator, so I hit it with that for 45sec, after giving it a thorough splashing when filling the carboy. I'm also holding the ferm chamber at 50F, since that's the low end for the yeast.

I used Tettnang for my hops. I wanted to go with something a bit more traditional, and because I wanted to split this in two to make a French Saison... I wanted something that'd work well with both styles, so Tett won that internal debate (I have too many hops, always a head-cracker when I decide what to use)

 

[CharlosCarlies]

I worked at a mid-size brewery that does a lot of lagers and 830 is their house strain (ours as well FWIW), so I can at least share my experience with it.

I'm planning on the following schedule:
14 days at 50f
2-3 days at 68f
Cold crash down to 35f over 2-3 days
Rack off yeast into keg, hit with gelatine, return to 35f ferm chamber

If pitch rate is adequate, I've seen primary fermentations as short as 7-10 days. Although with that said, our standard procedure was to pitch at ~50F and let free-rise to 55F which should speed things up a bit. I don't have a lot of experience w/ 830 fermented lower (which a lot of people swear by), but even at 55F it absolutely produces a clean tasting beer IMO.

As far as diacetyl rest, we raise the set point ~10F above primary fermentation temps when there's 1-2 Plato of extract left. At this point we also cap the fermentor. This serves two purposes: 1) the yeast are still active and we can use this "free" heat to warm the tank 2) there's still CO2 being produced that we can collect for natural carbonation.

Once at diacetyl rest, we generally let sit for 2-7 days (sometimes even more) BUT that's based off using a VDK forced warm test where we heat a small sample to ~140F for 30 min or so. If you smell diacetyl, it isn't ready yet. With that said, it's much easier for us to take daily samples, so just playing it safe and giving it a full week would be prudent IMO.

From there we would crash to 30-32F for a few days before centrifuging and filtering. Obviously this isn't an option for homebrewers, and in our smaller brewery we've been factoring in about a week of cold conditioning time in the tank. The beer still isn't crystal clear at this point, but it's acceptable for some styles and ready for fining if you so choose. We also pick up about 1.5-2 volumes of CO2 during this time from capping the tank, which is certainly nice at speeding the process along.