Octoberfest FG
 

Bottled my octoberfest tonight. 7 days primary (55 deg), 21 days secondary (35deg). My OG was 1.050, my FG is 1.022.

Why would the FG be so high? I did not use a starter with this batch and it took 2-3 days to start fermenting.

Sounds perfect to me. The best O'Fests I've ever drank have been on the malty, sweet side. You're still at the 5% range so I'd say, chill em and enjoy.

That's only around 55% attenuation, a little low in my opinion. The FG depends on the yeast strain used, many Ofest strains exhibit low attenuation, around 65-70%. There are other factors such as; amount of oxygen available to the yeast, amount of yeast pitched, viability, etc. I would have given the beer more time in the primary since it's a lager and the temperature is colder.

I think fermentation was complete. It was 1.022 after 1 week in primary. I warmed it up to room temp for 2 days for a d-rest, then dropped 5 deg per day down to 35. No fermentation occurred.

I'm guessing I under pitched the yeast, no starter. Which luckily for me is ok with a malty octoberfest.

The sample I had yesterday tastes good. I'm going to bottle condition at 50 deg. for two weeks. Then two weeks at 35.

I think there are 2 things contributing to your low attenuation.

1) Underpitching. Lagers absolutely need a starter and that starter needs to be at least 2 quarts.

2) Primary was too short. Since lagers ferment at colder temps they need more than 1 week to finish. I kept my Oktoberfest in primary for 3 weeks then lagered for a month and that felt like I was rushing things a bit. Remember 1-2-3 is just a guideline, many beers will not be done in 1 week.

Are you sure this is an "absolute" or a stong opinion? I've only done one lager, but I didn't use a starter and it turned great.

Nothing in brewing is an absolute but from everything I have heard/read/ experienced it is stongly recommended.

With an OG of 50 your brew is not done fermenting until it hits 1.012-1.013.

At 22 it's still too high.

I don't think my brew can ferment anymore. When I took it out for a d-rest for 2 days and then slowly to 35 over 6 days, the SG never changed.

I guess I could have added more yeast, but it's in the bottle now.

The beer may come out more carbonated than excpected, since there were some unfermented sugars left when you bottled.