Diacetyl rest too soon?

[Reubens888]

I'm kinda new to lagering. I brewed a maibock and fermented two 5 gallon carboys at 52 degrees. After 14 days, the airlock appeared to only be bubbling about 3-4 times per minute, so I raised the temp to 65 to finish it off before lagering. Well, that was 9 days ago, and its STILL bubbling 4-5 times per minute. Obviously I raised the temp too soon. (I did not check gravity after putting in carboy. that will be a process change for me next time for sure)

So what do I do now? I feel like I only have 3 options:
1: Let it finish out at 65 before lagering.
2: raise it to 70 for another diacetyl rest
3: drop it to lagering temp and rack off the original yeast

any help is appreciated!

 

[glick]

You have to use your hydrometer!! The airlock is not a good way to tell if fermentation is complete. You can input your recipe into Beersmith or something similar to approximate your O.G. then you can use your hydrometer to determine if your fermentation is complete based on your yeast attenuation %.

 

[PLOVE]

Just kick to the 70 and finish. Many of us follow the typical lager schedule where we ferment for 7-10 days in the mid-50's, raise to 70 for 3-4 days for diacetyl rest, and if ferm is complete drop to 35 for lagering.

How quickly did the beer kick off? I would bet that you either underpitched, or pitched cold struck yeast that didn't get going very quickly. You might consider pitching your yeast a 70, and then dropping the temperature for primary fermentation. Unless you're massively overpitching, your yeast will go through a 12-24 phase of reproduction (requires O2), and then they get to work on your sugar.

Good luck!

 

[BigFloyd]

Leave it at 65*F until you have a stable FG (same # four days apart).

I pitch plenty of yeast on my lagers and bubble O2 into the wort, so I start checking gravity at 7-8 days in. When it hits 75-80% of the way between OG and expected FG, it's time to bring it up for the D-rest until finished.

 

[Cyclman]

+1 let it finish, I would also think you probably underpitched, maybe under aerated- both can slow lager fermentations especially.

I plan on doing a Maibock soon, great beer.

 

[Reubens888]

I did a yeast starter, and bubbled with pure O2 for 1 minute in each 5 gal carboy (is that enough?). yeast and carboy were both at 55 when pitched, and lowered to 52ish.

Thanks for the comments. I will definitely use hydrometer next time. so far I'm leaning towards leaving it at 65 til its all done. I realize the post has not been up that long, so I plan to wait until this evening to make a more final decision.

Thanks everybody!