Lager not done, will this work?

[bluebrew17]

So I went to bottle my lager- a belgian pilsner after 90 days. It came out at 5 brix, which is 1020 gravity which is not done.... but i took the reading in the middle of transfer to the bottling bucket. So I re-added the 1/2 of beer to the carboy with the 5 oz of corn sugar and raised the temp up to 68. Think it will work?

I think i crashed the fermentation too early and it wasnt done. only my 2nd lager.

 

[Newbeerguy]

So I went to bottle my lager- a belgian pilsner after 90 days. It came out at 5 brix, which is 1020 gravity which is not done.... but i took the reading in the middle of transfer to the bottling bucket. So I re-added the 1/2 of beer to the carboy with the 5 oz of corn sugar and raised the temp up to 68. Think it will work?

I think i crashed the fermentation too early and it wasnt done. only my 2nd lager.

Hmm are you sure it wasn't done? What was the recipe and what yeast did you use? did you make a starter?

 

[bluebrew17]

wow fast reply... I used the platinum series mexican lager yeast from white labs. I set the johnson controller to 48 for initial fermentation and i remember that it was fairly slow compared to ales (didnt know really what to expect). I then did a diacetyl rest and it kind of took off. I actually let it go at 65 for 5 days, then started lowering it 2 degrees a day to 34 on the controller. I did make about a 1000mL starter

I see looking up that yeast strain that its listed at 50-55. That may have been 1 reason.

After poking around on this site i set the controller to 50 for now. I could still turn it down again. Its very cold still.

I'm sure the reading was correct, I use a vee-gee refractometer. I broke my hyrdrometer during that brew, i remember, so i dont have an IG. but it's a very light bodied belgian pils. 10 lbs belgian pilsner and .25 lbs caramalt. It didnt really have any off tastes, seemed pretty good.

 

[Newbeerguy]

wow fast reply... I used the platinum series mexican lager yeast from white labs. I set the johnson controller to 48 for initial fermentation and i remember that it was fairly slow compared to ales (didnt know really what to expect). I then did a diacetyl rest and it kind of took off. I actually let it go at 65 for 5 days, then started lowering it 2 degrees a day to 34 on the controller.

I see looking up that yeast strain that its listed at 50-55. That may have been 1 reason.

After poking around on this site i set the controller to 50 for now. I could still turn it down again. Its very cold still.

I'm sure the reading was correct, I use a vee-gee refractometer. I broke my hyrdrometer during that brew, i remember, so i dont have an IG. but it's a very light bodied belgian pils. 10 lbs belgian pilsner and .25 lbs caramalt. It didnt really have any off tastes, seemed pretty good.

Did you adjust your refractometer reading for the alcohol content? I cannot imagine the yeast stalling out after a 5 day D-Rest. And with the slow temp drop for lagering, it should of completed fermentation well before your lagered.

 

[bluebrew17]

adjust the refractometer for alcohol content? let me take a look at the manual...

 

[Newbeerguy]

adjust the refractometer for alcohol content? let me take a look at the manual...

Once fermentation has started, the refractometer will no longer accurately read the sugar content of a sample because alcohol is now present. If you are using the refractometer for a final reading calculations are needed.


(that is from AHS)

Here is the link to their calculator. It might be a bit difficult to determine the actual alcohol content since you don't have an initial OG. But if you know your usual eff. I can plug the recipe into Beersmith and get you a guesstimate.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_67_364&products_id=12574

 

[bluebrew17]

oh wow. I did not know that. so i'm going to guess that it was 1.040, because i took a pre-boil reading on about 6 gallons and it came to 1034, which was a low amount. So i added 2 cups of xtra light DME during boil. Then I broke my hydrometer. So 1040 to 1020 comes to: 1.008 which is 4.18% which may be right. Ok, back to bottling. Thanks dude.

 

[Newbeerguy]

No prob, glad I could help