willie247

Recipes 

I have a lager fermenting that has only dropped 12 gravity points in 17 days. It started out at 1042 and 17 days later is only at 1030. I have made many ales but this is my first lager. I pitched a very active starter of White Labs WLP840 American Lager Yeast. The air lock on the starter was bubblin away when I pitched it and i had signs of fermentation in the airlock the next day. So like I Said its sitting at 1030 after 17 days and FG should be around 1010. Its fermenting around 52 degrees. Well my concern is should it have just about fermented all the way out by now or is it where it should be at this point.

menschmaschine

Recipes 

Something's not right. That should have fermented out by now. I've never had a lager under 1.050 take longer than 2 weeks to reach final gravity. It could be any of a number of things:

- Your temperature isn't really at 52°F and is really in the 30s°F
- Your yeast wasn't all it was cracked up to be... too small of starter, low yeast viability, yeast mix-up with an ale yeast, etc.
- Your hydrometer reading is wrong and it really is fermented down to final gravity

If you can rule all of those out, you'll just have to wait it out. Check it in a couple days and see where it is. Has it reached high krausen?

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willie247

Recipes 

Check temp again and it's in the low 50's. Checked hydrometer against water and reads 1.000. As far as the krausen heres a pic below. It never got to high. Like I said I've made only ales before and the krausen on the lager is no where near as high as an ale would be.

david_42

Recipes 

I've had lager ferments take a month. If it isn't done by then, bring the temperature up to the low 60s.

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