New Yeast and Higher Alcohols

[walkervillebrew]

Hey all,

We recently purchased new yeast from White Labs (proprietary lager strain). I followed their recommendations to KO and pitch at 21C, wait for signs of fermentation, then bring temp down to desired fermentation temp. I ramped down the temp by 3C/day so as to not crash the yeast and by day 3 I was fermenting happily at 11C. However, I'm detecting high levels of fusel alcohols in the beer (now at day 6), more than likely due to the higher ferm temps for those first crucial days. After crop and repitch I'll certainly be running off and pitching at ferm temp and avoiding most HAA production but as this is the brewery's first brew it has me pretty ticked. Has anyone else experienced this? Any workarounds?

Cheers

[BelgianBrews]

I know that White Labs recommends that you start first generation lagers at 70 F (21 C) but I personally think this is too warm. Of course I like to get fast starts to fermentation, but I also worry about excessive ester and higher alcohol production. I have a fairly user-friendly proprietary lager yeast from White Labs, and I start it at 62 F (17 C) and wait for it to reach high krausen. Then I set the glycol to 50 F. With the position of my undersized cooling jackets (15 year old tanks) it takes almost 24 hours to get the temp to 50.

With this procedure I usually hit high krausen in about 24-30 hours, and within about 48 hours of pitching first generation yeast I am down to 50 and happily fermenting. Maybe you should try starting around 64-66 next time, and start cooling it a little more aggressively after you hit high krausen. Depending on how temperamental your yeast is, you may not have success starting it as low as 62.

[brewmaster 2011]

That is because you should have pitch at 10c and let rise to 12c-14c over the first 24 hours. Every german lager brewer i have talk to does the same thing. The reason White Labs tells every one the opposite is beacuse the cell count is low for their pitchables. I use Brewing Science Institute for yeast. They always have the right cell count to plato and begings fermenting 12 hours after knock out.

[walkervillebrew]

Thanks for the reply guys - definitely food for thought... Too bad there is no fix for the higher alcohols...
Will certainly not follow recommendations from the lab next time and just go with what the books, peers, and my gut says!

cheers

[BelgianBrews]

I completely agree with brewmaster 2011 that White Labs starters are a lower cell count per BBL than what is typically advised. Of course, you can order more volume than what White Labs recommends to achieve your desired cell count (typically 1.5 million cells per milliliter per degree plato for lagers). I always start first generation warmer and then reduce the temperature after reaching high krausen, except when using certain Belgian yeasts. First generation always takes longer than successive generations to reach terminal gravity, and is more likely to stall if cooled to soon; in my experience starting first generation colder than the desired fermentation temperature and allowing to warm up results in an underattenuated beer that takes too long to finish fermentation. I always start second and later generations 2-3 F colder than my desired fermentation temperature, and let it warm up to the desired temperature. I've been practicing this procedure for some time without issue.