Lager- Krausen misbehaving?

[Lurkerga]

Greetings! I am brewing my first Lager (Partial Mash / Premium American Lager). The yeast used is Wyeast 2035 American Lager. The initial fermentation was steady for about 5 days in a beer fridge, controlled at 55F. Total time at 55F was 2 weeks. I allowed fermentation to reach 1.020, just short of the target FG of 1.015, before I brought the beer up to 65F for diacetyl rest.

The first 24 hours presented a strong activity in the airlock, which I assume was CO2 release. My hydrometer registered 1.015 after 24 hours and has stayed the same for the past 3 days. I can only assume that the beer has completed it's initial fermentation, however the krausen has not dropped.

Should I continue to wait for the krausen to drop prior to racking into secondary for lagering? I don't want to mess this one up as it seems to be on the mark as far as fermentation and taste go. I'm just unsure if keeping the beer in the primary at 65F for more than 5 days will negatively effect the beer.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Samuelouellette]

If I remember correctly, the krausen is not the best indicator of fermentation, so if the gravity is stable then It should be finished. I did leave my first lager on a diacetyl rest for more than a week with no ill effect. I slowly ramped up the temperature in the diacetyl rest so in the 7th day it was 70F just to make shure it is done.

I am actually making my 4th lager right now with Wyeast 2042, a light american lager, and it has been 5 day in fermentation and I think it's already time to do a diacetyl rest!

So ya no worries you can leave it a couple of days more, and I did cold crash with the krausen still present (F.G was stable) and the krausen sank to the bottom.

 

[Gazza19]

+1 on leaving it in the primary for the temperature drop. After the diacetyl rest, I like to drop the temp slowly to lagering temps. Maybe 1-3 degrees per day so as not to shock the yeast. The krausen will drop during this cooling if it didn't already. Remember when you drop the temp to take precautions to avoid suck-back (such as capping your fermenter, removing blow-off, etc) so you don't get a bunch of star-san in your beer. Also, you'll drop a lot of yeast and stuff during this cooling so if you rack after that you can avoid lagering on all that extra stuff.