Looking for lager experience

[enginerd]

I pitched my first lager about 24 hrs ago and and the activity is nothing like I expected from my ale experience. Do lagers ferment that much slower? I always had amazing airlock action using safeale-56, vigorous bubbling well within 12 hours of pitching - no starter or rehydration, just sprinkling on top. I pretty much used the same routine this time with safelager-23. Sprinkled into 75*F wort and dropped down to 50*F pretty quickly (maybe too quickly). Now, a day later, only a burp every minute or so. Does this sound about right? What can I expect over the next week or so? I guess any airlock action is good airlock action and I should just relax...
Thanks

 

[covered95]

You will be fine. At the low temp of 50* it will take a little bit longer to get going. Give it another day or two and you should start to see some krausen and airlock activity.

Some folks will pitch their lager yeast at 70*ish and let sit for a day at that temp so that it gets going and then move to lagering temp. A search will reveal the pro's and con's.

 

[King of the Swill]

My lager is 10 days in the primary and it never has had vigorous activity. A bubble every minute or so. I used liquid yeast and pitched at room temperature. I let sit at 67 degrees for one day then moved to 52-55 degrees for 9 more days. I just moved it to 65 degrees for a 48hr diacetyl rest before going to a secondary.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'd recommend you rehydrate your yeast next time but otherwise, it's normal.

 

[enginerd]

Well, thank you all for the reassurance. I let the temp drift up to about 60* overnight and this morning I had some airlock motion. So, now that I'm confident in the ferment, I'm bringing it back down to the 45-50 range and I'm going to try to forget it exists for the next couple of weeks. Thanks again.