Need help with first all-grain/first lager beer

[Hophanatik86]

My recipe come from Charlie papazan's new joy of home brewing the unamerican light beer p312. The brew pretty well the wort finished with an O.G. Of 1.040. I pitched with one packet of brew fern lager yeast( I just sprinkled yeast directly onto wort). Exp on yeast was 01/08/2014. After five days chilled at a temperature if 42-44 degrees I have seen no airlock activity and after racking to a secondary fermenter hydrometer reading confirms gravity is unchanged.

Clearly there is no yeast activity. I would appreciate any input available. Could it have been my method of pitching the yeast or temperature wort was held at or old yeast?

Thank you

 

[TipsyDragon]

First off lagers need significantly more yeast than ales. I would recommend a pitch rate calculator like Mr Malty. It recommends 14 grams of dry yeast. Secondly always rehydrate dry yeast before pitching. Pitching dry can kill half the packaged yeast. Third most lager fermentations are in the mid 50s and are dropped to the 40s for lagering.

 

[Paradingbull]

Likely the wort is too cold. Try warming to mid 50's if possible. Would also recommend pitching more yeast if you have it as it has been several days since brewing. You need some fermentation to get going quickly to help keep unwanted nasties from taking over your beer.

 

[SpeedYellow]

For starters (no pun intended) you should read the directions on your package of dry yeast. Or you can ignore them and later wonder what went wrong.

Most folks prefer liquid yeasts with huge starters for lagers. Or if you want dry yeast, you can use multiple packets.

 

[Culbetron]

You racked it to secondary? What made you decide to do that?