We're relatively new to home brewing, but have done multiple successful batches, and we took the chance and brewed a lager. I felt like we did a ton of research on them, even picking up an extra fridge to use for temperature control, and setup a thermometer and temperature controller to keep it steady. The fridge temperature is around 52F, which seemed ideal from my research and for the yeast used (WLP800).
We brewed almost 3 weeks ago, and frankly sort of let it be and forgot about it, except for checking it from time to time to look for signs of fermentation and to make sure the temperature was okay.
Today after 3 weeks we did a gravity check. The OG was 1.049, right in line with what it should've been.... and today the gravity was.... 1.049~ My WTF moment.
There was definite fermentation signs over the past 3 weeks, albeit very slow and not like the other beers we've brewed (IPA's, pale ale's, and a strawberry blonde), but we had expected that since it was in low temperatures. The wort tastes very sweet, it's definitely not done fermenting.
I'm really not sure what to do now. The gravity hasn't budged. The hydrometer Is fine, it has read properly in other brews and reads properly with water. We pitched the yeast with a 1000ml starter that I thought seemed to have a decent slurry. We pitched the yeast at around 55-60F, trying to pitch with the yeast and wort within 5F of each other.
Should we pitch more yeast? Maybe the starter wasn't enough as we thought it was. Maybe our fridge temp is off and the temp was too low, but I think the temperature is correct. Will it be a problem to raise the temperature? I'm pretty lost at this point, I was not anticipating this at all.
Any ideas or suggestions would be great. There's so much conflicting info that I'm not sure what to do.
We brewed almost 3 weeks ago, and frankly sort of let it be and forgot about it, except for checking it from time to time to look for signs of fermentation and to make sure the temperature was okay.
Today after 3 weeks we did a gravity check. The OG was 1.049, right in line with what it should've been.... and today the gravity was.... 1.049~ My WTF moment.
There was definite fermentation signs over the past 3 weeks, albeit very slow and not like the other beers we've brewed (IPA's, pale ale's, and a strawberry blonde), but we had expected that since it was in low temperatures. The wort tastes very sweet, it's definitely not done fermenting.
I'm really not sure what to do now. The gravity hasn't budged. The hydrometer Is fine, it has read properly in other brews and reads properly with water. We pitched the yeast with a 1000ml starter that I thought seemed to have a decent slurry. We pitched the yeast at around 55-60F, trying to pitch with the yeast and wort within 5F of each other.
Should we pitch more yeast? Maybe the starter wasn't enough as we thought it was. Maybe our fridge temp is off and the temp was too low, but I think the temperature is correct. Will it be a problem to raise the temperature? I'm pretty lost at this point, I was not anticipating this at all.
Any ideas or suggestions would be great. There's so much conflicting info that I'm not sure what to do.