Lager Question

[Phyrst]

I brewed my first lager 10 days ago. I had done my research and thought I had the process down pretty well. My plan was to let it ferment for a week or until I saw the krausen start to fall and then I was going to raise the temp for a diacetyl rest. Keep it at 65 F for two days, transfer into secondary, and then lower the temp down to 35 where I would park it for 7 weeks.

Of course, how often does your plan work perfectly? It took almost two days before I started seeing airlock activity. After about a week the krausen was still going so I tested the SG and it was 1.038. I was hoping it was at 1.025 by now and I would be starting the diacetyl rest.

Normally I would relax and have a homebrew and wait it out, but this Friday I'm going out of town for a week. I might be able to get the diacetyl rest in by then, but I doubt I'll have time to transfer into secondary and lower it to lager temps.

Now, my wife will be home and I could probably give her instructions on adjusting the temperature, but it's hit or miss that she'll remember. Honestly, with her I wonder if the dog gets fed while I'm out of town. But I can call her and text her to bug her to keep on it. But there's no way she can transfer anything into secondary, and I wouldn't trust her to properly get a sample to test the gravity.

So if I had her adjust the temperatures for me through the diacetyl rest and take it down to lagering and then just transfered into secondary when I got home do you guys think I would be alright?

 

[calebawilson]

I let my lager sit at the fermentation temp on the yeast for up to a month and never have problems with any diacetyl. My normal way is to let it ferment at 50 for 3 weeks then go to secondary at 28 degrees for at least a month.

 

[terrapinj]

you should have enough time this week to do a 2 day d-rest and can lower the temps back down before you go

if you wanted to help it along you could raise the temp by a degree or two for the next couple days, check gravity and start d rest on Weds or so and lower the temp back down on Friday before you go. you don't even need to rack to secondayr, just cool it in the primary and rack when you get back in a week