Lager been at 1.020 for last 2 days, pull it out?

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.

petep1980

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Nov 4, 2008
Messages
1,899
Reaction score
21
I've been fermenting my lager now around 48-50°F for 5 days now and it's been at 1.020 for the past two days. At one point the kegger went weird and I found it at 40°F, so I pulled it out for a couple hours to warm it back up then stuck it back in kegger back at 50°F. Don't worry I doubt it got any warmer than 50°F.

My basement is 68°F, should I pull the lager out and see if that can kick in the last couple specific gravity points?
 
SG was 1.054, I made a pretty big starter with fresh yeast I know. All grain double decoction mash btw.

I have a package actually of the same exact yeast I have NO plans for. It was shipped to me and I don't ever plan on using it.

HA!! Gotta love lager yeast. To finish this off I STILL need a starter.
 
It strikes me from reading that the d-rest (which is what I could be construed as doing) in this case of the home brewer is to help aid the end of fermentation which can peter out at the end of a lager fermentation sometimes.

So I'll leave it here for a couple days because I'm sure all the off warm fermenting flavors are gone because I fermented properly.
 
Yes I would pull it out.

Mine usually take 2 weeks at 50F plus a 2-3 day d-rest at 65 to get fully attenuate. But I'm no lager pro yet.
 
It's likely that your decoction produced a very dextrinous wort and is the cause of your low attenuation. What were your rest temps, both main mash and decoction? Did you accidently over-shoot them?
 
Main mash was 125°. My target was 122°, but I pre-heated tun too much. That's still within range. Sach rest after first decoct was 155°F to 157°F I recall. Mash out I don't recall the temp.
 
Main mash was 125°. My target was 122°, but I pre-heated tun too much. That's still within range. Sach rest after first decoct was 155°F to 157°F I recall. Mash out I don't recall the temp.

OK, that sounds about right... you got little beta-amylase activity with that schedule, hence your lower attenuation.
 
OK, that sounds about right... you got little beta-amylase activity with that schedule, hence your lower attenuation.

What is "beta-amylase" activity? How do I get more.

I am going to use Kaiser's enhanced double decoction next time.

I have an old pack of wyeast 2308 I could top it off with using a 1L starter no problem. I am unwilling to use this pack of yeast on a new batch due to the temps it's been subjected too, and it's age. Would that do anything?
 
Beta-amylase is the enzyme responsible for converting starches and long-chain dextrins to fermentable sugars (primarily maltose). It's optimum temperature range is ~126-149°F. Once you get above 154°F, you have little beta-amylase and mostly alpha-amylase activity, which converts starches to dextrins (mostly nonfermentable sugars).

With your mash schedule, you essentially skipped over the temperature range for beta-amylase. However, these temperatures aren't black and white for enzyme activity. It's best to understand your malt and, ideally, to have the malt analysis for your base malt to choose your rest temps.

For instance, many German brewers who use German 2-row pilsener malt, use temperature rests of ~140-142°F and then up to ~158°F. The lower rest facilitates some protein-related enzyme activity (which you typically don't want too much of) and some beta-amylase activity at the same time. The higher rest then adds body by creating dextrins with alpha-amylase and still has a little bit of beta-amylase activity going.

Your first decoction (or any non-mash-out decoction) should rest at ~158°F for about 10 minutes prior to boiling. This allows alpha-amylase to break down starches that beta-amylase can't break down. Then when when you return the decoction to the main mash, the beta-amylase can make use of these and break them down further to fermentable sugars.

It's unlikely that adding yeast will do much. However, if you pitched your starter at high krausen into your dextrinous beer, you might get another point of gravity or so. This is called "krausening". You also might not get anymore attenuation, so it's a decision you'll have to make if it's worth doing.
 
On Kaiser's enhanced double decoction he seems to really skip that rest all-together. He has a long acid rest, then a rest with the decoctions individually around 154-158. Would this achieve this beta-amylase you're shooting for? It's a bit higher than your range for this.

I don't even think the pack of Munich 2308 I would add is even viable. -1 for ordering liquid yeast in the mail.
 
Any mash temp/rests are individual to the beer style (and malt used) and what the brewer wants as an end result. It's been a while since I looked at Kaiser's decoction info, but I'm sure he had good reason for doing it that way.

That being said (and talking main mash rest temps), the acid rest is only necessary if you need it to obtain a good mash pH... or perhaps if you want it for the decoction factor, but I don't think you would notice the difference either way. The next rests temps are malt-specific and according to how dextrinous you want the wort to be (how low or high attenuation you want... more dextrinous = lower attenuation). Most malts today don't need a full-blown protein rest (120-ish°F) and the beer would be worse off for it (lower head retention). However, you need some sort of rest to go up from for a decoction mash, so a rest in the 130s to 140s°F straddles the line between a protein rest and a saccharification rest and typically won't harm the beer in regards to too much protein getting broken down (lower head retention).

Beta-amylase activity all but ceases at 158°F and alpha-amylase activity is optimized. If you want a more attenuable wort, keep this rest (could be called a dextrin rest) on the lower end, say 156°F. But remember, this is after having done a rest conducive to beta-amylase activity. If you didn't do any rest in the beta-amylase range (say jumping from an acid rest to a saccharification/dextrin rest), you'd want to keep this rest even lower (treating it like a single-infusion mash) so that you have both beta and alpha-amylase activity going on.

These rests for the main mash are independent of the short rest for your decoction before boiling the decoction. They should always be at ~158°F to optimize alpha-amylase so that it can break down native starches for use in the main mash later.
 
I read that d-rest should be done when 75% is complete, that would have been 1.024ish. Eh, so I missed it a little. Who cares though!!! I successfully fermented a lager cold for the first time.

Now I have to wait for that gross rotten egg smell to pass before I begin lagering.

I may as well just try and culture up that other yeast pack and try to salvage it.

Thanks for all your advice.
 
Back
Top