WYEAST 2007 lager yeast

[Kevin Marien]

Hey,

Im brewing my first lager this weekend. Havent attempted it before as it looks like a harder beerstyles in general. I bought wyeast 2007 lager and was wondering what everyones experience is with this strain. On the pack it says ferment between 9-13°C. I was thinking to start at that temp and after 4 days raising the temp a bit to speed up the proces, before lowering it again. Now is this something that I can pull off, or is this strain really sensitieve to this. Would be interested to hear what you think, and what experiences you had with this yeast. I have 1 pack for 19l btw.

 

[BeerCat]

Its a great yeast, very balanced and flocculates fast and produces a crisp bright lager. I would not drop the temperature until its fermented. Start low and raise it after a week slowly to 18c. I leave mine for 21 days then cold crash. Make a starter for your yeast, 2 or 3l. It might take 48 hours to start bubbling at low temps but that's ok.

 

[Kevin Marien]

Looks like you had some great results with it. I didnt have any DME, so couldn't make a starter, but used two packs of the wyeast 2007. After I Brewed, I put my fermentation bucket in the fermentation fridge and put the smackpacks in there as well to make the temperature aligned (13°C), and to make the smackpacks swell a bit more. (probably gave it about 4 hours in there before pitching). Will let you know how it turns out.

 

[Kevin Marien]

Its been in the fermenter for about 65 hours now, and there has been no activity. Just took a gravity reading, and looks like there was no activity. Want from 1.059 to 1.058. Should I be worried? Both the smack packs were pretty slow activating, and werent even activated fully after 6-8 hours when I dumped them in. Use by dates were 1th of June and 6th of May 2021. This is why I prefer dry yeast, just seems so much more potent, and cheap...

 

[foxbat]

My usual calculator tells me that you need 413bn cells for an ideal pitch. Taking your best case pack (1 June expiry) that would have been manufactured on 1 Dec 2020 it says that two packs would be about 120bn cells. You've underpitched significantly and as a result you're going to see a longer lag phase. Lagers with liquid yeasts really do need starters.

 

[Kevin Marien]

Very happy to finally see some action in the airlock today.

Thanks, will definitely remember to do a starter next time. So is the manufactore date 6 months from the expiry Date? Because the smack pack already seemed very slow at expanding.

Anyway, glad its finally fermenting, and to have learned a bit more on this crazy journey.