I’m looking to brew up a pseudo lager. Anyone have any recommendations on if I should use 1007 or 2124? I’ve seen and read that 2124 can be fermented at warmer temps with good results.
With either strain, you still want to ferment as cool as possible if you are trying to achieve a lager like beer. Just using one of these yeasts and fermenting in the mid 60’s won’t give you a very clean crisp lager’ish beer.
I actually have a faux classic am pils going right now with US-05, but I pitched at 58* and let it rise up to 60 and it is chugging away there. If you can keep it down in the high 50’s for at least the first 5-7 days you should achieve a pretty clean character. Then raise it up (ie move the fermenter) so it finishes in the mid-hi 60’s if possible.
Either yeast should be fine though, as long as you are in the recommended temp range.
WY2124 works well at ale temperatures. I’ve done a 1554 clone with it and it’s nice. Works well for schwarzbier, but would certainly work great for other styles. Maybe try to keep it around 60F if you can.
I guess it kind of depends on what type of psuedo lager you are thinking of making. I used 2124 for the first time on an Oktoberfest that fermented around 60* and the beer was great.
Try the Antwerp yeast, WLP515. It is a special strain from White labs. It makes a great Belgian pale ale, and has a crisp, light sulfur character which gives a lager like finish.
Resurrecting an old thread here. I was thinking about using the 2124 for an Oktoberfest between the low 60’s possibly high 50’s. Would you ferment for 3 weeks primary, diacetyl rest for 3 days, and then bring it back down to the same temp for 2 to 3 months? Would I transfer it to a secondary?
If you could cold crash for a couple days then transfer to secondary or right to bottles or keg to lager
I think the old cold crashing I could do is if I bottle and stick a couple in the fridge at a time…
Can you put your fermenter in an ice bath for a day or two before bottling to get the yeast to drop? Then bottle condition. Then lager in the bottles for a few weeks or a month.
I will try that brew_cat! Thank you. In the end i guess “beer will be made”… I just hope that it will be “enjoyable beer”… The longer you lager it, the better it will get?
So it looks like I’m about 6 days into my fermentation and did a peek at my primary today and it has a nice Krausen. It looks like everything is ok and I’ve been fermenting about 52-53 degrees (which is lower than I though my crawl space would get). Should I check my gravity after 2 weeks and and do a diacetyl rest for 24-48 hours or until the diacetyl is removed? And it would be safe to lager in the bottle? It would still be around the same temperature. Sorry, I’m new at fermenting a lager (and probably working myself up over this) so I’m not exactly sure what to expect.
I usually do the d rest after two weeks. You don’t want to wait for all the yeast to drop.
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Yes you can lager in the bottles. After your d rest cold crash for a couple days then bottle. Bottle condition 65-70 then back to your crawl space for storage. Give them at least a couple weeks down there. Of course you can start sampling anytime
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thanks again brew_cat!
Can you D rest for a week? Would that be bad?
Won’t hurt it.
