Question on Brewing classic styles Northern German Alt

[BS Brew]

I just brewed this style yesterday and pitched at 65F. JZ says in his book to ferment at 60 but the white labs website this could cause some unwanted flavors so I went with 65. Has anyone used wlp036 and had experience using this yeast?

It also says to lager for 4 weeks. Does this mean to put in primary for 7 days then rack to keg and let sit around 45F for the 4 weeks? Some clarification would be great.

The style is on page 105 of the book I think. I'm at work and dont have any of the info in front of me.

Thanks!

[brewinhard]

I just finished a keg of this one this past week. What an awesomely drinkable session beer, thanks JZ (per usual). I fermented this one at 60 degrees for 2 wks. Maybe letting the temp rise a few degrees towards the end of this period. After 2 wks, I racked the beer to a keg and lagered for 4 wks. I did try the beer at 2 wks of lagering (38 degrees) and actually found it quite drinkable, but it did improve upon waiting the 4 wks time.
When homebrewing a good rule of thumb for length of primary is to let your beers sit for 2 wks before doing anything with them (ie bottling, kegging, transferring,etc). This is simply to allow the beer to remain on the primary yeast cake long enough for the yeast to reconsume any by products they may have spit out during their fermentation phase. Your beers will greatly improve if this rule of thumb is ALWAYS followed. Good luck, and enjoy this one.

[BS Brew]

Thanks for the advice! I do usually leave beers in the primary for close to two weeks. I have never lagered so this is exciting.

[Quin]

...JZ says in his book to ferment at 60 but the white labs website this could cause some unwanted flavors so I went with 65. Has anyone used wlp036 and had experience using this yeast?

The thing about BCS is JZ has brewed these many times using the exact recipe and fermentation schedule. You can use it verbatim without exception.

[thatguy314]

...JZ says in his book to ferment at 60 but the white labs website this could cause some unwanted flavors so I went with 65. Has anyone used wlp036 and had experience using this yeast?

The thing about BCS is JZ has brewed these many times using the exact recipe and fermentation schedule. You can use it verbatim without exception.

+1.

It could also be ap itcihng rate issue. If you listen to JZ and Whitey, they actually recommend different pitching rates. JZ is 0.75 / 1.5 billion cells per liter per plato for ales/lagers, Whitey uses 0.5 / 1.0 billion / liter / plato for ales / lagers. This might result in very different flavor profile. JZ also uses an intermediate pitch for hybrids (like alt). I don't know if Whitey uses that or an ale or a lager, pitching rate. But JZ's hybrid rate is even higher than Whitey's lager rate, so go figure.