First lager fermentation help

[Reject86]

Hello lads/lasses right I'm struggling a little with my lager home brew, I bought a kit that makes up 40 pints, added 1kg of light malt extract and a sachet of lager yeast.

The brew has been in its bucket with the lid on and airlock in place for 48 hours now with no sign of fermentation. I followed all instructions to the letter but what I noticed after about an hour was my yeast was out of date by 3 weeks. Now I know not to watch the air lock or rely on this for fermentation but surly something would bubble. I have wine yeast also which I haven't tried yet. Should I try adding this yeast to the brew or is it worth waiting a little longer?

The brew is on my kitchen work top where it gets between 20•c and 24•c depending upon time of day/night.

Any help welcome and thanks. Jamie


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[BigFloyd]

Is it actual lager yeast you pitched in there? Dry or liquid? How big was the packet if dry? 5 grams? 11 grams? Did you aerate the wort before pitching?

Lagers require TWICE the yeast pitch rate of ales, so a single 11g packet of dry yeast, properly rehydrated, is (guessing the gravity of the wort at 1.050-ish) only about half the lager yeast you should have pitched. It's not unusual to see an extended lag time when underpitching like that.

Your temperatures are way too high if your using a real lager yeast. At 20-24*C, it's probably not going to taste very lager-like. 10-12*C would be much more appropriate.

I would not use the wine yeast.

 

[Reject86]

Yes it was a 11g packet of dry lager yeast, I did aerate the wort and the SG was 1.055, I guess I will hold out for a few days in the hope that it starts to ferment. Thanks for your help, I will be moving the brew to a more suitable location. Jamie


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[itchygomey]

My bucket rarely ever bubbles through the airlock. I've had some aggressive fermentation going on without a singe bubble through the airlock.

 

[Reject86]

Well it looks like something is happening lol


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