Fermenting a Lager at 50 deg

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WAGNER BREWING

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My lager is at 50 deg in my fridge and it has been fermenting for 5 days now. I get 2 - 3 bubbles per minute. I see a lot of people that ferment at 55-60 or 52, but not 50 so far. Im not worried, Im just curious if other people have fermented this low and how it turned out. Im taking a gravity reading today, because this morning, I got one bubble in 90 sec. :rockin: Rock on!
 
50 is a perfectly acceptable temperature for a lager, most yeasts can go lower still. I do mine at 48-52.

Don't worry about bubbling rates, that's a poor way of measuring fermentation speed.
 
Thanks...Ive heard that leaving a lager in the primary for up to two weeks before siphoning to a secondary is not a bad practice. What is your take on that?
 
Mikey said:
Don't worry about bubbling rates, that's a poor way of measuring fermentation speed.

Really? I thought it pretty much directly correlated to the yeast's metabolism.
 
WAGNER BREWING said:
Thanks...Ive heard that leaving a lager in the primary for up to two weeks before siphoning to a secondary is not a bad practice. What is your take on that?
The practice is to leave it in the primary until the primary fermentation is done and you've achieved your FG. It's at that time that you move it to the secondary and begin the lagering phase.
 
It is south of winchester, north of Harrisonburg.

I took a gravity reading, and it has gone from 1.054 to 1.048 after 5 days of fermentation. Is this possibly due to the low temperature or yeast. The air lock had been bubbling for 4 good days. Am I suppose to adjust my hydrometer reading according to the temperature?
 
I leave my lagers until terminal gravity is reached, usually between 2 and 3 weeks.

Rack to secondary, drop to 34f and lager for a month or so before kegging and
further lagering until I drink it.
 
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