Dougan
Well-Known Member
First off I'm going to come out and say this is a 'why isn't my beer fermenting?' question. I've already have a batch take 9 days to start fermenting and it turned out excellent. I'm well aware of the value of leaving questionable batches and not messing with them for awhile. I just brewed this batch on Sunday and don't have any intent on messing with it until at least a couple weeks.
Anyway, it's my first lager (Extract, still). Long story short, I'm an apartment brewer in Wisconsin so my storage options are 65 and outside which was at -10 last night (F). So I decided I was goign to stash it in my girlfriend's garage, which is heated, but not very well (usually about 55). Well, I brewed it (dry yeast), and put it in there immediately (it was very warm this weekend and with the extra heat boost it was about 60 in the garage, seemed like a good idea at the time) but it immediately cooled down outside, and the roommates closed the heat vent in the garage that very night. I'm lucky the damn thing didn't freeze by the time I checked on it yesterday.
I suspected there wasn't any fermentation so I brought it inside and let it warm up overnight. I opened it tonight and there was no sign of fermentation (same gravity). Hopefully if it does magically start up again it'll go strong so I can see the airlock bubbling because I'm not going to keep opening it up to check.
I obviously know why this happened because that's not the way it's supposed to be stored right away. My current plan is to leave it inside until the end of the month (unless it clearly starts fermenting) and at that point probably pitch more yeast if nothing's picked up. Does this sound good? I guess my concern is that it might slowly ferment and I won't notice it, so it'll ferment out at higher-than-ideal-lager temperatures.
Guess I'm just looking for input because I've never had experience with lager yeast before. Would such a drastic temperature change before fermentation took off kill the yeast?
Thanks,
Scott
Anyway, it's my first lager (Extract, still). Long story short, I'm an apartment brewer in Wisconsin so my storage options are 65 and outside which was at -10 last night (F). So I decided I was goign to stash it in my girlfriend's garage, which is heated, but not very well (usually about 55). Well, I brewed it (dry yeast), and put it in there immediately (it was very warm this weekend and with the extra heat boost it was about 60 in the garage, seemed like a good idea at the time) but it immediately cooled down outside, and the roommates closed the heat vent in the garage that very night. I'm lucky the damn thing didn't freeze by the time I checked on it yesterday.
I suspected there wasn't any fermentation so I brought it inside and let it warm up overnight. I opened it tonight and there was no sign of fermentation (same gravity). Hopefully if it does magically start up again it'll go strong so I can see the airlock bubbling because I'm not going to keep opening it up to check.
I obviously know why this happened because that's not the way it's supposed to be stored right away. My current plan is to leave it inside until the end of the month (unless it clearly starts fermenting) and at that point probably pitch more yeast if nothing's picked up. Does this sound good? I guess my concern is that it might slowly ferment and I won't notice it, so it'll ferment out at higher-than-ideal-lager temperatures.
Guess I'm just looking for input because I've never had experience with lager yeast before. Would such a drastic temperature change before fermentation took off kill the yeast?
Thanks,
Scott