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Raising temperature on jacketed fermenters

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  • Raising temperature on jacketed fermenters

    I recently brewed a lager using Wyeast 2124 Bohemian. I am fermenting at 50 degrees. According to Wyeast, this strain benefits from a diacetyl rest at 58 degrees for 24 hours.

    What is the best way to raise the temperature of a 14bbl jacketed fermenter?

  • #2
    hi,

    just increase the temperature setpoint at a certain point during fermentation. will heat itself up.

    alex

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    • #3
      We used to allow the temperature to rise when there was about 17 deg SG fementable sugar left, but this was with much larger vessels, but may give some guide. Anyone this experience with FVs this sort of size ?
      dick

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      • #4
        Just as Alex T says," increase your temperature setpoint before the end of fermentation" and from my experience, keeping an eye on the ambient temperature in your brewery along with gravity readings a couple of times a day to get a fix on how close to your target final gravity. I've found that I can usually achieve diacetyl rest within 24hrs of raising the setpoint depending on the ambient temp and rest for 48hrs according to the suggested diacetyl rest period by White Labs, for my strain of lager yeast.
        I hope that helps.
        Always in search of exceptional beer and interesting people...

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        • #5
          Hi,

          Depends on what brewing text you read, but some suggest to set the temp up at approx 50% attenutation (say 5degP for a conventional strength lager).

          Alex

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          • #6
            My own experience with 2124:
            I found that letting the temperature naturally rise from 50 f. to 60 f. over a few days was key. I would wait until I had about 2-3 P. left of extract, then let the last bit of activity naturally warm up the vessel.

            This has the added bonus of the increased activity scrubbing out the sulfur compounds that seem to be one of the hallmarks of this yeast, too.

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            • #7
              If you're talking about a beer that's already in the fermenter and unlikely to create enough heat of it's own, there is one other way to raise the temp of a batch, but you'll need an empty fermenter (or another tank on the same glycol system) to do it.

              1. Shut of the compressor/chiller on your glycol system, but leave the pump running.
              2. Valve off all other tanks on the system except for the empty tank and the tank that's too cool.
              3. Fill the empty fermenter w/ very hot water.
              4. Run the pump until the temp is up, then valve the tanks off, drain the hot h2o, and run the chiller a while before opening it up to the other tanks.

              I figured this one out on the fly one day after a little screwup with my chiller...or did I read it in this forum? Worked like a charm!

              Cheers,
              Scott

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              • #8
                Thanks for your replies, guys... In the future I will turn up the thermostat when the gravity has a couple of degrees plato to go...

                Sadly, the 2124 did not floculate well enough and I will probably try a different yeast next time - perhaps the Czech Pils, which Wyeast tells me is a much better floculator.

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                • #9
                  I've had to perform "open heart surgery" on a couple of brews, due to a dodgy thermostat resulting in the temperature diving during fermentation.
                  We ended up removing the glycol lines from the inlet and outlet of the jacket and running warm water through instead. Was a big waste of water and time, but had the desired effect. Then roused the yeast and up got it going again.

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