Phunhog

Recipes 

Hey now,
I had a little extra dme around the house last week so I decided to brew a small batch and try something different, a lager. I decided on Rocky Raccoon's Honey Lager straight outta The Joy of Homebrewing. I modified the recipe, using Beersmith, for 4 gallons. It was something simple like this:
3lbs light dme
2lbs clover honey
.75 oz Cascade Boiling
.75 oz Cascade Aroma
Lager Yeast

Now my problem. After sitting in the carboy for 7 days I have no fermentation according to my hydro readings. Now I am trying to troubleshoot and recover. My temps in my garage have been avg. 45-50, so maybe the temp are just too low?? After that where would I look for problems? Bad Yeast?? I would think that the recipe is golden since it came from the book and modified using Beersmith. So experienced brewers where should I go from here in my effort to save my beer?? Thanks.

Phunhog

Recipes 

Does anybody have any ideas on how to salvage this beer?

cdburg

Recipes 

What reading (FG) did you get on the hydrometer?

Phunhog

Recipes 

It was 1.060, which was way higher than I anticipated. I was looking at more like 1.048-1.050

cdburg

Recipes 

That's the reading now? The OG (original gravity) could have been in that range, but if there was any fermentation at all, the reading now (FG or final gravity) should be much lower.

cdburg

Recipes 

Also, what lager yeast did you use? 45-50 should be fine for most lager yeasts, but the fermentation will take longer than an ale yeast.

Did you see any activity at all or any krausen at all?

Phunhog

Recipes 

well I moved the carboy inside and the airlock is bubbling so....a small ray of hope that everything will work out. If not I do have some munton's ale yeast laying around that I could pitch. It will turn into a "Honey Steam Beer" at the worst.