dantheman39
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- Jun 8, 2013
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I am brewing a Honey Lager that started off problematically for me. I made a few mistakes, being my first lager, but it seems like everything has progressed fairly well since the start despite those mistakes.
Recipe is an Extract Honey Lager with Steeped specialty grains, OG was supposed to be 1.044, it ended up at 1.056. FG was supposed to be 1.011, I assume that doesn't change but could be assuming incorrectly.
It's been in the cooler for 11 days at this point. which is 13 days since pitching yeast. I checked the gravity two days ago and found it was at 1.020, 9 points away from FG, tasted the sample, and detected a very slight (and I mean barely detetctable) hint of that slick buttery taste known as Diacetyl. The sample was also rather carbonated, which I haven't read about or experienced before. I raised the temperature at this point up to 65 for a D-Rest since I was approaching FG, where it's sat for the last two days, and gravity today is 1.011 and any detectable carbonation in the solution is gone, as is about 99.9% of the diacetyl taste. However, I am still seeing a small air bubble in the airlock about every 15-20 seconds. There is also a very small amount of yeast floating on the top of the wort.
The question is... is it ready to be racked to secondary and Lagered? Do the air bubbles mean it's still fermenting or is it just CO2 coming out of solution from the temperature being raised?
Unfortunately due to the slow start to this fermentation, the schedule is not lining up with what I thought it would and I am leaving town for a week tomorrow afternoon. I don't think I want to leave my lager at 65 degrees for a week more, so should I wait until the last possible minute before I have to leave and rack to secondary and lower the temperature to Lagering range, or should I leave in primary and lower the temperature back down to 54 until I get back? Wouldn't that ruin the D-Rest?
Thanks for any advice!
- I underpitched (by about 60-70% according to some) by using a single Wyeast Smack-Pack witout a starter per the recipe.
- I also started fermentation for two days at 65 degrees per the recipe (also a mistake), and after 48 hours, which happened to coincide with the first few bubbles from the airlock, I moved the carboy to a 54 degree freezer for primary fermentation.
- Once in the freezer at a steady 54, fermentation picked up, it built about 1.5" of Krausen which has since fallen, and steady air bubbles for about a week. Also a slight sulfury odor from the gas coming off of it.
Recipe is an Extract Honey Lager with Steeped specialty grains, OG was supposed to be 1.044, it ended up at 1.056. FG was supposed to be 1.011, I assume that doesn't change but could be assuming incorrectly.
It's been in the cooler for 11 days at this point. which is 13 days since pitching yeast. I checked the gravity two days ago and found it was at 1.020, 9 points away from FG, tasted the sample, and detected a very slight (and I mean barely detetctable) hint of that slick buttery taste known as Diacetyl. The sample was also rather carbonated, which I haven't read about or experienced before. I raised the temperature at this point up to 65 for a D-Rest since I was approaching FG, where it's sat for the last two days, and gravity today is 1.011 and any detectable carbonation in the solution is gone, as is about 99.9% of the diacetyl taste. However, I am still seeing a small air bubble in the airlock about every 15-20 seconds. There is also a very small amount of yeast floating on the top of the wort.
The question is... is it ready to be racked to secondary and Lagered? Do the air bubbles mean it's still fermenting or is it just CO2 coming out of solution from the temperature being raised?
Unfortunately due to the slow start to this fermentation, the schedule is not lining up with what I thought it would and I am leaving town for a week tomorrow afternoon. I don't think I want to leave my lager at 65 degrees for a week more, so should I wait until the last possible minute before I have to leave and rack to secondary and lower the temperature to Lagering range, or should I leave in primary and lower the temperature back down to 54 until I get back? Wouldn't that ruin the D-Rest?
Thanks for any advice!