[James K]

Yesterday I made what I hope turns out to be an altbeer or if passable some form of bock.
I step-mashed this beer at 134* and mashed out around 170*. My boil went on for 120 minutes and I added hops at 60 20 and flame out. At 10 minutes I added whirlflock and some yeast nutrient.
This ended up being a 5 gallon batch. I missed my gravity a bit. It read 1.040 after I crashed it to the 70s.
Because the yeast activator (smack pack) was the same temp as the cooled wart I pitched the yeast as the worth continued to crash. It is currently around 58* but does not look very active.
I plan to keg this beer and slowly crash it down to 34* after primary.
Because I am not using the wyeast1008 German ale yeast, what might I expect from this?
Should I do a diacetyl rest because I am using a lager strain?
Please let me know what sounds best. This is for a September comp and I was late in planning. My homebrew shop was also out of the yeast I needed.

[narcout]

I step-mashed this beer at 134* and mashed out around 170*

Where those your only two rests?

I missed my gravity a bit. It read 1.040 after I crashed it to the 70s.

What were you aiming for?

Please let me know what sounds best.

You underpitched quite a bit.  Assuming you don't have any other yeast to pitch, you've got a couple different options.  If I were you, I'd either keep it where it is or raise the temp a few degrees and then let it finish out from there without attempting to cool it down further once it gets going.

You're not in an ideal situation, but that's probably your best bet at this point.

It is currently around 58* but does not look very active.

See what it looks like in another day if you hold the temp or raise it a bit.

[James K]

Yes those were my only rests. I honesty don't know what I was thinking because I had another recipe in my head. I was hoping for 1.050ish. I feel like the yeast pack wasn't that great. Normally I do a starter but was hoping that because the low gravity I would be ok. I can get a dry yeast pack tomorrow but it would be US-05. That was a recommended supplememt for the wyeast1008.
After work tonight if it looks the same I will either repitch, or raise temp.
Thank you.

[narcout]

Yes those were my only rests.

It's an odd mash schedule.  Is that what you typically use?

Did you take it right up from 134 to 170 with a boiling water infusion or did you bring it up gradually using some other method?

If you didn't spend some time in the more typical saccharification range (say between 145 and 160 - give or take a few degrees on either end) that could be the reason for your low gravity.

[HoosierBrew]

Yes those were my only rests.

It's an odd mash schedule.  Is that what you typically use?

Did you take it right up from 134 to 170 with a boiling water infusion or did you bring it up gradually using some other method?

If you didn't spend some time in the more typical saccharification range (say between 145 and 160 - give or take a few degrees on either end) that could be the reason for your low gravity.

My thoughts, too. Would explain the low OG.

[James K]

134. Raised to the 140s. Tried to raise more before the rinse. Then washed grains with 170. Honestly I thought I was supposed to mash at 153 because I was looking at something else. I never did a step mash before.

Great insight.

[Thirsty_Monk]

WY 2124 loves 60F and it does a great job. Ferment it as a "hybrid" beer.


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[mabrungard]

I used 34/70 dry yeast for an Alt and fermented it at 60F and it seemed almost as clean as if I'd fermented at 50F. It is a very tolerant yeast. 34/70 is supposedly the same as 2124.