Safale 05 Lagering at 32F

[ltrog]

I have been lagering my Munich Helles at 32F for 4 weeks now and plan to bottle next weekend. I used Safale 05. I am now having second thoughts about my approach and question if I have inadvertently killed the yeast? I still bottle my beer. This means I will add corn sugar to the batch prior to bottling and conditioning. I guess my root question is, will I have enough yeast still alive that will be able to create carbonation once I add the sugar, bottle and allow conditioning time? This leads to another question should the answer be no.....what can I do to save the batch?

 

[Minbari]

I dont think us05 was really designed to be lagered, being an ale yeast, so its kinda a shot in the dark. there might be enough yeast to carbonate, but it might take 6-8 weeks, or it might not at all. you can always cool your priming sugar and add more yeast before bottling.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

I'd argue that the yeast will be just fine but may take a while to wake up and get going.
I'd definitely touch my siphon to the bottom to increase the amount in solution when transferring, but other than that, just give it a little more time and I'm sure it'll be fine

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

You can "lager" any beer regardless of yeast type. As Brian mentioned, you can stir up a little yeast that settled out and bottle with that. The other alternative is to add 1/4 to1/2 pack of dry yeast with your priming sugar, Nottingham is a favorite yeast type to do this for some.

In the past when I lagered a beer I was going to bottle condition, I just stirred up some yeast and transferred it with the beer. Sometimes it took a little longer than normal to carb up, but it was worth the wait. Lagering does not kill the yeast, if anything, it will preserve it as long as it wasn't frozen.

 

[dmtaylor]

Cold doesn't kill yeast. Your beer will carbonate in the bottles. It just might take longer than normal, perhaps 3-4 weeks instead of just 1-2 weeks, because lagering for a long period removes more yeast than we are accustomed to.