Hi,
I brewed a lager beer last weekend, (OG1.045) and I used a pack of the Wyeast Czech Pilsner yeast (liquid activator - direct pitch). The smack pack had worked fine (swollen up nicely) at around 16-17 degrees C and I pitched it into the wort at around 15 deg C. The wort was very well aerated when I pitched.
My fermenter was in a fermentation chamber set to 6.5deg C (the recommended range for this yeast is 5-8, so bang in the middle). It probably took around a day to get down from 15 to 6.5.
I have not noticed too much bubbling from my airlock, and I did a gravity test and see the gravity is moving downwards (dropped to 1.040 after 6 days) but the fermentation is not nearly as strong as I would have thought. Also, I got a significant cold break, which has now all settled at the bottom of my fermenter, and so when I did my sample for my gravity reading, I got beer without the cold break stuff in it. (The cold break was obvioulsy all mixed in when I did my OG reading before fermentation)
Do you think my fermentation is "real" (ie the drop on gravity comes from fermentation) or from the fact my latest sample had no cold break material in it?
Does cold break material in suspension affect the gravity reading anyway? (Someone told me anything in solution affects readings, but things in suspension do not?)
Is this too slow for a lager fermentation? (I usually brew ales so have nto experienced this before)?
What should I do, if anything, to salvage this and get it going?
The beer is quite clear, the taste is very sweet obviously but has awesome malt flavours evident, and I really want to make this batch a winner.
What do you think?
I brewed a lager beer last weekend, (OG1.045) and I used a pack of the Wyeast Czech Pilsner yeast (liquid activator - direct pitch). The smack pack had worked fine (swollen up nicely) at around 16-17 degrees C and I pitched it into the wort at around 15 deg C. The wort was very well aerated when I pitched.
My fermenter was in a fermentation chamber set to 6.5deg C (the recommended range for this yeast is 5-8, so bang in the middle). It probably took around a day to get down from 15 to 6.5.
I have not noticed too much bubbling from my airlock, and I did a gravity test and see the gravity is moving downwards (dropped to 1.040 after 6 days) but the fermentation is not nearly as strong as I would have thought. Also, I got a significant cold break, which has now all settled at the bottom of my fermenter, and so when I did my sample for my gravity reading, I got beer without the cold break stuff in it. (The cold break was obvioulsy all mixed in when I did my OG reading before fermentation)
Do you think my fermentation is "real" (ie the drop on gravity comes from fermentation) or from the fact my latest sample had no cold break material in it?
Does cold break material in suspension affect the gravity reading anyway? (Someone told me anything in solution affects readings, but things in suspension do not?)
Is this too slow for a lager fermentation? (I usually brew ales so have nto experienced this before)?
What should I do, if anything, to salvage this and get it going?
The beer is quite clear, the taste is very sweet obviously but has awesome malt flavours evident, and I really want to make this batch a winner.
What do you think?