First lagger, SQ and FQ are the same! What happened?

[mcfire12]

Hi guys, I just did my third brew 2 weekends ago and I went to rack into my secondary and checked the FG.... same as the day I brewed it!?

I sanitized and did everything the same as I have any other time. The only thing that changed was a half hour before the end of the brew I mixed my yeast in a water bottle with room temp water and shook it up before I dumped it in my wort.

What gives? I do have another pack of yeast, I'm wondering if I should just pitch it in the secondary or what? Any ideas?

 

[IslandLizard]

lagger, SQ, FQ? - please decode

Brewed 10 days ago?
How does it smell? Like beer or rancid old cheese?

 

[mcfire12]

Brew date was 2-15
Secondary 3-1
SG and FG both 1.034.
This is a midwest kit, this bud's for you. Please don't hate... I'm making it for my friends not into homebrew. We all have them.
It smells great and looks even better.
Since this was a lager, I let it sit outside in my mechanical room where it was pretty much consistent at 45 degrees. Did I mess the yeast up trying to hydrate it? Should I pitch in more yeast? I'm positive I saw the airlock bubbling the next day, just like it has on my other brews. What did I mess up here??

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Does your hydrometer work? What happens if you test the SG of water? Does it read 1.0? I would start there.

 

[mcfire12]

It works, that's a good call to try that first though!

 

[sandyeggoxj]

OK then... do you have enough liquid depth in your test jar so that it can float correctly?

 

[PLOVE]

Does it taste sweet? Any evidence of krausen on the sides of your fermenter? With dry yeast it's pretty rare not to have fast start fermentations, and it sounds from your description that something happened.

I'm with sandy - maybe you have a bad/uncalibrated hydrometer. If it's not a bad hyro, try raise the temp to 70, and call it a diacetyl rest, and see if things restart. You probably would want to do one anyway before dropping back to lagering temps.

head scratcher

 

[mcfire12]

It tastes just as sweet as my other batches have. The beer looks and smells good. The hydrometer was used for my caribau slobber last time and I hit SG and FG right on the money. Didn't change anything at all except for putting the yeast in the water bottle. It was over a year from expiration as well.

 

[mcfire12]

Yes, I have the correct amount of liquid in my cylinder. Haven't had a problem with any other batches I've made.


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[geoffm33]

Like Plove said, is there any sign of krausen in the fermenter? Ring of crud a little above the wort level?

If not, then likely bad yeast or too cold. The instructions indicate you should ferment between 60-65. Warm it up a little and see if it takes off.

 

[mcfire12]

I'll try to move it in the house. I thought it was supposed to be at a lower temp to lager?


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[mcfire12]

From just moving it into the house the air lock is burping like crazy... I'm sure I left behind yeast and stuff just racking it into the secondary. Do I need to add more yeast? Looks pretty normal to me, here is a picture.


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[mgr_stl]

I don't see any visible evidence of fermentation (krausen), but I've never lagered so perhaps that kind of yeast doesn't produce one?

 

[Nuggethead]

It was over a year from expiration as well.
Over a year old?? If I read this right, maybe the yeast was dead.
Aerate and add new yeast..

 

[mcfire12]

I believe I used this yeast in my caribou slobber and the wort looked the same in this glass secondary. As I mentioned before, I hit my exact fg. My buddy that does all grain was stumped and said just toss another pack of yeast in it. I'm guessing that's because the only thing different was trying to hydrate the yeast this time. Before, I just sprinkled the yeast on top after flame out, let it sit for 10 mins, then stirred and put in the primary pale.

 

[mcfire12]

Sorry, the yeast pack expired in 2015 something. It was good yeast, according to the pack.

 

[itchygomey]

What yeast was it? I would bet you under pitched (lagers need much more yeast than an ale) and with the cold lager temp it never started until warming it some.


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[schematix]

I believe I used this yeast in my caribou slobber and the wort looked the same in this glass secondary. As I mentioned before, I hit my exact fg. My buddy that does all grain was stumped and said just toss another pack of yeast in it. I'm guessing that's because the only thing different was trying to hydrate the yeast this time. Before, I just sprinkled the yeast on top after flame out, let it sit for 10 mins, then stirred and put in the primary pale.

Did you pitch the yeast onto HOT or CHILLED wort (40F-110F)?

 

[IslandLizard]

You should never rack a beer off the yeast until it's done. And the only way to tell it's done is by taking gravity readings. If it smells like beer it must have fermented, but maybe not all the way. Lagers can be tricky. Too warm too many off flavors, too cold, it is slow going or stalls.

From what I can see in your pic, it looks there is a decent yeast cake on the bottom of that secondary. If so, how did that get there?

 

[mcfire12]

I believe it was 78 degrees when I pitched the yeast, I made an imersion chiller, I'm sure the tmp of the wort was fine. I did see a decent yeast cake also, this recipe has a bunch of rice stuff with it so it might be that settling now I have no idea. I understand you should never rack until it's done fermenting, but I figured 2 weeks it should probably be done for sure. So just let it sit in the warm now like I have done with all my ales? It's burping like crazy this morning. I don't remember what yeast it was but I know it was a lager yeast. I guess it was different then the other I did.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Lager Yeast is bottom-fermenting yeast, you normally won't see the krausen as you would in an ale, the kit comes with lager yeast , Both All Grain and Extract instructions state:

Place your fermenter in a warm area. (60-65°F) Approximately 1-3 days after adding the yeast you should start to notice a healthy fermentation taking place. A head of foam (called krausen) will have formed and CO2 should be bubbling out of the airlock. Lagers are fermented cool and stored for a lengthy time at an even cooler temperature. If you do not have control over the ferment temperatures just try to keep it as cool as possible. At this point, move your fermenter to your cool fermentation area (48-60°F). It is possible to start your lager fermentation in a cool area if you have made a yeast starter

Although I don't agree on starting your fermentation at 60°-65° for 3 days before moving the beer to a cooler area, I've pitched all of my Lagers at 65° and they immediately go into my fermentation/lager cooler at 50°, (always check the manufacturers website to confirm the temperature tolerances), If using dry yeast, I always rehydrate it before pitching it.
I'll agree that having racked it early, you lost some yeast and probably need to add another packet or vial or smack pack.
Remember lagers can easily take 2-3 months from start to finish.

 

[mcfire12]

Thank you!! Sounds like I was definitely did not read correctly and placed the beer in the cold before the yeast could even do work. I'm going to pitch in another pack and wait a few days then set it back in the colder space and wait.

 

[mcfire12]

Looks like it's working pretty good now. I'll let it sit inside and ferment for 3 days then move it back out to the cold for... Well how long should I let it set before i keg it?

 

[CA_Mouse]

Looks like it's working pretty good now. I'll let it sit inside and ferment for 3 days then move it back out to the cold for... Well how long should I let it set before i keg it?

Until it is done! Time is irrelevant. Yeast don't wear watches. Wait at least 2 weeks, 3 weeks is probably better for a lager, test the gravity and wait 3 days and test it again, if they are both the same reading, then it is done and ready to lager. Remember that a lager can take 2 to 3 months to be complete, where an ale can be done in 14 to 21 days.

 

[CraptainWirtz]

What yeast did you use? Was it actually a lager yeast? My impression is that a lot of these lager kits actually use ale yeast, so that might explain the slower ferment if you started cold. If it was a lager yeast, 10 days may not have been enough to reach FG, so 1.034 might actually be reasonable at this point.

Regarding your OG and current SG being the same, I bet you didn't mix your wort with the top-off water well enough before taking your OG reading (assuming you did a partial boil). You probably took a sample of the upper, less dense section of wort (that was mostly water), and your true OG was pretty close to what the kit intended.

 

[mcfire12]

I actually did a full boil, I cut the top off a keg and tigged handles to it which is pretty handy! Now that I think about it, that may have been an ale yeast? I can't remember for the life of me though

 

[itchygomey]

I imagine u know but ale yeast + cold = sleepy time


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[sandyeggoxj]

I actually did a full boil, I cut the top off a keg and tigged handles to it which is pretty handy! Now that I think about it, that may have been an ale yeast? I can't remember for the life of me though

What color was the yeast package?

 

[mcfire12]

Honestly can't remember. But when I brought it inside and pitched some more yeast I used an ale yeast. It's just what I had laying around from the stuff I put together for a leinys summer shandy clone recipe I made up.