BB Oktoberfest Problems

I know, RDWHAHB I've been doing that ( )

I started a BB Oktoberfest Sunday morning ( http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1028 German Octoberfest.pdf ). I forgot to add the dried malt extract until 20 minutes before the boil. The liquid malt extract got added on time. From the sounds of it, 20 minutes was time enough to clean the extract.

I chilled to 70, pitched the yeast, and put it in my new fermentation chamber. It took around 10 hours to get down to 54 - 57 degrees where it has stayed.

I took a gravity reading tonight (~42 hours after pitching), it's still the same as when I started, 1.052.

I didn't make a starter, as the instructions said to pitch the yeast straight into the carboy.

Should I take the carboy out for 12 hours to let the yeast get started faster or let it sit? I'm in no rush, just wondering..

You may have sent your yeast to sleep by pitching at 70 then lowering the temp. Is there any activity at all? Maybe its taking time for the yeast to make enough buddies to eat the sugars.

I think you should warm it up, and rouse the yeast up.. I think you dropped it too cold, too fast, too early perhaps.

Thanks guys, any general guidelines for what temperature I should raise it to and how long? This is my first lager so I felt the beginner forum would be best

For lagers you really should chill down to fermenting temps before pitching. If not you can have alot of off favors. In this case I think you are fine since your fermentation hasn't started. The other problem you may have is your pitching rate. If you pitched one pack you may have really under pitched. Go to www.mrmalty.com to see how much you should pitch but without a starter I'd recommend at least two packs if not 3-4. Lastly, don't worry about the late dme addition especially if you did a partial boil.

And be aware that lager fermentation is way different Fromm ales. Mine took two weeks and never really even bubbled.

42 hours is not that long if you only used 1 packet of yeast and didn't rehydrate it. For lagers, let the wort cool in ther fermentation chamber to pitching temps or even a couple degrees lower then pitch your yeast. You also want the yeast to be within 10 degrees of the wort temp. When rehydrating you can use small additions of the cool wort to temper it down to pitching temps after rehydration period (about 20-30 min). It is also a good idea to use GoFerm when rehydrating.

Alright I will keep these in mind for next time. Just surprising that the instructions didn't say any of this.. They do, however, say that these yeast can also handle ale temperature for fermenting.

If I leave it at the current temperature with my current yeast will it eventually ferment? Or should I head over to my LHBS today and get some liquid yeast to add to what I already have?

me and my buddy made this same oktoberfest. same recipe. we used a different yeast than the one in the recipe because we dont have any means to lager right now. but the fermentation process started very fast for our oktoberfest.