Oktoberfest fermentation issue

Yesterday I racked my Oktoberfest which has been sitting in the fridge fermenting and lagering for 6 weeks my initial gravity was 1.044 and when I checked it was 1.020 . My goal was 1.012

any ideas as to what I could do to get it to the 1.012. It will be about 2 more weeks till I am able to bottle it

I am currently having same issue nmy "remedy" is going to be raising the temp back into mid to upper 50's to give yeast oportunity to "finish it up"

I have been lagering at 36 degrees for 6 weeks now.

personally not too worried about it for my own I have faith in the yeast.

Well, it's too late now but next time don't rack until the beer is finished. Racking a beer before it's finished can really stall it.

If you've done the diacetyl rest already and the SG is still 1.020, I doubt you'll be able to restart it after racking.

For lagers, you'll want to ferment them in primary in the low 50s for about 10 days to two weeks, then raise the temperature for the diacetyl rest. Once the beer is at FG, and there is no noted diacetyl, then the beer is racked and lagered. You don't want to lager until FG is reached. The yeast will drop out, and the beer will begin to condition and clear during lagering.

If you begin lagering before the beer is done fermenting, it may start up again if you didn't lager for very long and you didn't rack.

For the lager that is at 1.020, I think that is where it will stay unless you build another starter or rack onto another yeast cake.

Did you do a D-rest?

you could safely bring that up to the upper limit of the yeast profile. I doubt that it would produce any esters during the final points.

check on it last night...I had placed in in my basement which is very cool ~50-55 and there was activity in the airlock ... so we will see if it turns out well

my Oktoberfest which has been sitting in the fridge fermenting and lagering for 6 weeks

Click to expand...

Does that mean its been lagering (~32-45 F) for 6 weeks. Or that it fermented in the primary for a week or two (50-55 F), and has been lagering in the secondary for 4-5 weeks?

Just trying to clarify. You really will want that FG to drop to at least 1.012 b/c of your low OG. I mean you want the "fest" part of the Oktoberfest, right?!?!

Yooper's directions is a "blanket" method that works well when you are first starting out lagers, but don't think that you have to do D-rests or have to hit the FG in the primary. But it is good advice if you don't know what to expect. I mean diacetyl will ruin an Oktoberfest IMO.

But if you don't have noticeable diacetyl, then you don't need a D-rest. If you don't crash cool your secondary, then you don't need to wait until you hit the FG to rack. Most classic lagering books say to get about 2/3 of your attenuation before racking, but that literature isn't geared towards a homebrewer.......so.......RDWAHAHB

Oh yeah, since you still have active yeast, you should just wait another week and then prolly just keg/bottle and "lager" in the serving container, if necessary (after fully carbonated if bottling).