Okay honestly not being facetious here: Is there some rush I'm not aware of to get a lager (say a Märzen) out of the fermenter that leads to this problem? I guess maybe I'm just the old fart, but I generally give the carboy (or whatever) a couple of twists at the end to 1) help any yeast on the sides to settle to the bottom and 2) to stir up the bottom layer just a bit to help with a diacetyl rest. On big beers like a Doppelbock where my yeast may have been stressed or otherwise not in prime shape, I kräusen to help with "cleanup duties." Since "lager" means "store" I always let the beer finish on the yeast cake for a month or so.
It's entirely possible the world has moved on from my ancient ways.
If you are already sampling I can't think of a reason in the world NOT to do a test that's available. I use Tilts so I don't have that last sample.
Agree. Take the low/slow route, especially with lagers. Increasingly all my beers "finish" faster these days, 6-8 days for ales, something less than 14 days for lagers. But there's a distinction, at least in my mind, between "finishing" (fermentation) and "done" (ready for kegging/conditioning/lagering). Just because I
think it may be completely fermented doesn't mean my FFT accurately predicted Final Gravity. Plus, isn't the d-rest a step to ensure "completion" of the process, by which I mean "in addition to" fermenting to FG?
Over time my processes and protocols have evolved from 'quicker' to 'more patient', even as my time from pitch to FG has seemed to decrease. This evolution seems to have speeded up in the last several years as I switched from glass and plastic fermenters to stainless steel conicals, and from no temperature control to frozen ice bottles and finally glycol chilling. I no longer rack to a secondary fermenter. Instead of removing wort from the lees I dump the lees out the bottom, leaving a nice layer of healthy yeast to spund carbonate and clean up the detritus left behind and in suspension. Later I soft crash and harvest out yeast for future batches, and then cold crash for clarity and conditioning. All of this accomplished without ever opening the lid on the fermenter. It's a lot more leisurely this way, and a lot more civilized (Old Bull, Young Bull). Little to no oxidation, no infections, less cleanup, better beer. Haven't gotten into the routine of testing for diacetyl since I do not seem to sense it and my fermentation profiles for both ales and lagers already include temperature steps to higher than normal fermentation range for several days at or near FG, which accomplishes a d-rest I suppose. Either way the beer tastes good to me.
I see from your avatar that you're from K.C. (Go Chiefs!). Wife and I grew up in Northtown on the Missouri side and both went to K.U. (Go Jayhawks!). Still have some family in the area and get back from time to time to sample some Smokehouse and Jack Stack 'que, and of course some Boulevard beer.
