2 Week week wait before fermentation. Problems?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

drpepper322

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2009
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Location
Connecticut
Hi everyone, first time poster, long time brewer / lurker. So far everyone on the forums have been a great help!

Now for my dilemma ...about two weeks ago I brewed a Czech Pilsner ( First time doing a lager), used White Labs WLP800 and hit O.G. of around 1.061. I let it sit for a few days, and temperature was hovering between 49-and 55. After a few days I checked the fermenter, and absolutely no movement in the airlock. I took a reading and was down to 1.048. At this point I was pretty relieved things were happening and then just let it sit. 2 weeks later, right around transferring time, I noticed there was still no movement in the airlock ( the inner piece not pushed up by any CO2), I took a reading and O.G. was still at the 1.048. SO just out of curiosity I took a termperature reading and noticed the brew was 45...Way too cold for WLP800. So I moved it to warmer place, and within a few hours I noticed the Airlock gradually bubbling away. Despite a two week lag time at least things are starting to move!

I'm only concerned with the two week wait and anything that could have happened during that time. Will there be any off flavors from that lag time? and more importantly, is there any risk of infection just having cooled wort sitting in a fermenting bucket for two weeks? Is there anything else I should be wary of?

Thanks for the input
 
You'll want to check gravity on that. As a liquid warms up, gas will come out of solution. So you can have airlock bubbles with no fermentation.
 
You might be more likely to have a stalled ferment since the cold would have caused more yeast to fall out of suspension. Don't worry too much about it, but if it does stall you might have to rouse it a little. Leave it be for now though, just check it again in a week.
 
Back
Top