Octoberfest woes

[NotaBrewMaster]

Hey all, I brewed an extract octoberfest OG 1.052 on 9/25 and fermented it at a steady 53 deg f until today 10/20. It took a week or so to get fermentation going but the second week was very active, the. Died back down the third week. Being almost positive fermentation stopped I took a gravity reading of 1.024...that leaves me with an ABV of 3.68%. It seems pretty obvious that it isn't done fermenting but I don't know where to go from here. I racked the beer to a sanitized secondary because I'm afraid of letting it sit on the yeast cake too long but now don't know what to do. It was recommended to ferment it for 10-14 days and I let it sit almost a month and it's still not done. Will the beer attenuate further during the lagering phase with suspended yeast? If so should I do a diactyl rest? Should I maintain temperature and repitch? I used a packet of dried lager yeast initially, not sure the strain but I can look it up in my notes if it matters. It was a basic octoberfest kit compiled by my LHBS.

 

[Darwin18]

It sounds like you did a few things wrong with this brew.

1) It sounds like you may have underpitched with the dry lager yeast. A week's lag time is unusual. My lagers are usually bubbling away loudly 8 - 10 hours after pitching my starter.
2) Taking the beer off the yeast was a major mistake. Your fear of letting the beer sit on the yeast is unfounded. Also, taking the beer off the active yeast while still fermenting (you weren't close to finished) is a good way to stall a fermentation.

The beer will likely not attenuate if you start lagering. The cold temperatures will cause fermentation to slow, if not cease, and cause the yeast to fall out of suspension. I would recommend pitching a new dry yeast and letting it finish until your FG is reached.

 

[NotaBrewMaster]

Ok thanks for the advice, but what would cause the old yeast to stop fermenting? Do you think it still was fermenting just excruciatingly slowly? Should I pitch 2 packets the next time I brew a lager to be safe?

 

[Cyclman]

mrmalty is a great yeast calculator, free, that will help you pitch appropriate yeast amounts. That long of a fermentation at 53 without reaching FG would indicate underpitching. Never move to secondary until primary fermentation is done, beer is at FG, moving unfinished beer off the yeast won't allow it to finish.

Yep, repitch, hopefully it finishes out, then lager it.