Lager vs.ale fermentation

I don’t know… I’ve seen my hydrometer drop 1-2 points simply off gassing the beer for the hydro…

Alright then, time fer a test… Why not pour a brew in a glass, test it, then allow it to sit in the fridge fer one, two, maybe three days and test each day to verify? I know, it took so much TLC to git it into that glass…… Parden my thinning’ Sneezles61

You’re suggesting that we waste some of our precious beer on a scientific experiment? I dunno @sneezles61

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Maybe think as tho yer tasting yer sample AFTER you take a reading? :neutral_face: Sneezles61

Oh heck no! But you could use a BMC beer…

Oh heck no!!!

Alright I will do this…. start tonight… I’ve got a friend to git some BMC from…. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:Sneezles61

Why leave it in the fridge though? Wouldn’t this work better at room temp to allow it to off gas better?

I may try it too. I have a couple old cans of guinness in the garage fridge I think…

Let us know what you guys find! I don’t do a lot of lagers, but I make plenty of long aged sours and brett beers. It would be great to know if the last few gravity point drop over a long period was entirely due to attenuation or if it’s partially due to off-gassing of CO2.

I feel like this is a totally different animal. Wort is complex enough, adding a cocktail of complex yeasts and other microbes to it changes the chemical makeup to a degree above my pay grade. Though I do love the product!

I did get some clarification from the German fundamentalists :grinning:

Basically, in the ‘traditional’ german brewing schedule, lagers were cold pitched, fermented cold, then without a d-rest or temp raise, would be slowly dropped to lagering temps. During this cooler phase (which is very tricky and brewers needed to know their yeast really well), there would be a minor gravity drop (maybe 5-10%). This is the way marzens were made, and its a minimum of a 6 month process. Doing it incorrectly and not properly massaging your yeast’s shoulders would result in underattenuated beer.

These days, most lager brewers (including most German breweries) basically do a modified Narcziss with some variation, where the yeast is pitched cold (44-46*), fermented cold (46-50*), then slowly (or not slowly) raised at around 50% attenuation to 60-65*. These take around 21 days without a cold-aging period. On a homebrew scale, particularly when armed with filtration and fining agents, I know people have turned around lagers even quicker.

Sorry - My comment was specifically about dissolved CO2 versus a de-gassed sample causing a significant difference in a hydrometer reading, and how that relates to the beers that I make.

BUT… that’s still awesome to know that lager yeasts can still be active at lagering temperatures! If only it would get cold enough in my neck of the woods to start making lagers…

Move here. Its -14F outside right now. Only took a week for the bay near my home to freeze solid.

Actually, my temp controller is working hard at the moment keeping the fermentation chamber in my unheated, outside shed at 65F while I try to drive the attenuation of a couple of ales as low as I can.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, from the fridge, poured into my test beaker showed 1.024… My first reading. So my fridge is set and proven to be 33*, per my thermometers… Tomorrow I’ll report my next finding. I’ll keep it cold just to find out about degassing, then when I believe its flat, I’ll take it out of the cold enviroment and we’ll look at it over another week to see what, if any changes do happen…. so sad… poor pale ale…… Sneezles61

Rebuilt, yer lucky! Its been so balmy here about an hour south of Lake Superior…. could still be fermenting ales outside :wink: !! Sneezles61

Keep in mind, if it’s actually carbonated the bubbles are going to stick to the hydrometer and lift it up in the test beaker. You’ll get an artificially high SG before it goes flat from the bubbles making the hydrometer more buoyant.

No kidding! It’s supposed to RAIN on the south shore of Lake Superior tomorrow. WTF???

Oh yes, a lot of bubbles! Also there should be the correction factor as 60* is point to which a reading should be taken… But I won’t bother with that as its not the point… Sneezles61

So today I’m at 1.014. not as many bubbles yet even after a half a dozen spins the bubbles persist! Sneezles61

OK I found a Flying Dog Pearl Necklace in my garage fridge. Foamed big time when I poured it in the hydro cylinder. When the head subsided it didn’t appear all that carbonated. no bubbles rising,very few clinging to the side of the cylinder. It read 1.020 corrected from 68(per my thermapen) to 60 degrees using BS2. Yes I lifted the hydro and spun it, no bubbles clinging to it. This was Monday afternoon.

Just now hydro reads a temp corrected 1.017.

Edited twice for typos

wow I didn’t realize there was such a difference just from carbonation, thanks for posting this Danny.

I have had that beer (and love it), and 1.020 seems slightly high for a FG. Actually 1.017 even seems high. I don’t think they add any lactose to it or anything.