Woo-hoo! The second brewing of an easy lager is holding at 26.5 psi @55*F after 2 weeks and 2 days on a whole-cake pitch. She started off very slow at 50*F, and I didn't see anything more noticeable than a little psst from the tap connector relief valve for the first week. I pitched the beer in on top of the cake (highly aerated) after the fast chill down to about 45*F. I had my freezer set on 45*F prior a couple of days, but noticed that the night before brewday the ETC read 76*F.
Somehow the sensor got smashed and wasn't letting the Love ETC control the freezer. So, the yeast in just a couple of days went from 45*F to 76*F and then back to 45*F thanks to a spare Ranco (gotta love them). So, now I set the Ranco the night before brewing and what happens... I get up the next morning to a sloshy quart of yeast cake. Seems my new temperature probe's tape got too much condensation from the keg sweating, and so swung into the air. Ok, so now I have to just turn off the freezer and open the door hoping to get close to 45*F (thinking that might help with the beating they have just taken) before I pitched on top of it.
The mash went well, with the exception to lots of stirring from filling from the top. My system just works better with bottom feed to lift the dry stuff up to be stirred easier. I usually just stirred a bit and could feel it was fine, not so with the top fill. Once I was not as worried about dough balls, I started my 2 hour mash schedule at 148*F for the whole two hours with a thin mash almost 2qt/#. Set back, and went on worrying about my yeasts health.
Perfect wort, low eighties efficency, and a nice "hop addition hot break volcano" later... I am pumped to 100% commitment to go ahead and pitch and hope for the best. This was a 12.25 gallon recipe that had top up water to achieve a final batch size of 15 gallons (added pre-boiled/RT water at flame-out). Now I have 1.049 wort, and 15 gallons of it! I recirculate with tap water, while aerating, with a Venturi on the return to kettle. Once I am at tap temps, I swap over to ice water recirculation and drive the wort to 45*F. The wort was frothy like a big mug of rootbeer, so I transferred the whole mess into my fermenter and closed the keg. Attached my spunding valve a full 24 hours later, and had nothing. Pulled the tap relief and pfft. Ok, that makes me feel better... and then the wait.
So, here I am this much later from pitch (and using a pressurized system for Pete's sake) and I have no pressure. So, I leave on the 7th and decide to turn up the ferment to 55*F, and 3 days later I have over 20 psi. Guess it woke up???
Now, we let her go and log when she's done. She's at carbonation pressure and seems to be producing quit a bit of neutral beer smells from the constant hiss you can hear. I think the second I check with no hiss, I will ramp the beer up another 5*F a day to 75*F for 3 days, check the gravity, and start crashing 5*F a day until I get to rest of 35*F for 2 weeks. Then I transfer into serving kegs.