HurricaneR

Recipes 

Hi all,
I brewed a Lager with White Labs lagering yeast, about a week ago.

Placed it directly into my shed (outside) and it has been at approx. 45 degrees for 7 days.

Brought it inside for the diacetyl rest period. It has been in my kitchen for almost 48 hours.

The airlock is bubbling like crazy, 10 - 15 times a minute.

Was planning to transfer it to a glass carboy add the dry hops and put it back in the shed (no refrigerator space).

Am I on track, if not what do I do?

MachineShopBrewing

Recipes 

We're gonna need some more details. What was the OG, batch size, yeast pitch amount? Did you add oxygen? Have you taken a gravity reading? I would imagine that the beer was underpitched and kept too cold for proper fermentation. Now that you warmed it up it is taking off. When you say approx 45*F do you mean temp controlled or that the air temp was 45? Which means it could have been low 30s at night?

HurricaneR

Recipes 

Yeah,
Temp is not controlled,
Batch size 5gals.
Yeast pitched at 78 degrees, straight from the vial.

So how do I save it?

Malticulous

Recipes 

It probably going to be alright. Pitching more yeast colder always makes better beer.

Take a SG reading. If it's the same in a few days go ahead and start lagering it as cold as you can get it without freezing.

I have my lagers out in a shed in a Rubbermaid tub half filled with water. It has been a constant 50F since November.

bbrim

Recipes 

With the shed having been around 45 the yeast would have been moving very slowly. That is the bottom of the fermentation range. That said your yeast had probably not eaten more than half the sugars available, making it a little early for a D-rest. The beer will not be ruined however it may have a bigger ester profile than one would expect from a lager. With such an unsupervised fermentation I would recommend a gravity check before raising the temp next time. In general, it is recommended, it is best to wait until fermentation is 75%+ before raising the temp.

MachineShopBrewing

Recipes 

What was the OG? I'm guessing you only used one vial?

HurricaneR

Recipes 

OG = unk
1 vial.

So where do I go from here.

bbrim

Recipes 

Just ride it out. Next take OG reading and monitor more closely. An imperfect batch is just part of the learning curve. It will probably still be a good beer.

Revvy

Recipes 

What's your current gravity? That's the only thing that's gonna tell us what's going on.

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