Quick Fermentation Question

bahnzaijr · Oct 9, 2014

Hey guys, This is my first post on here but have been a long time viewer so please bear with me.

I bought the pennsylvania lager kit from Annapolis home brew, the Yuengling clone, and brewed it monday night. It's now mid-thursday, so it's been about 84 hours or so. I'm afraid that i put the yeast in the wort while it was too warm, at least 80 degrees F, and havent seen much fermentation yet. When i tested the SG initially around 80 degrees f, it was about 1.044 and now at 54 degrees its about 1.048.

There seems to be yeast at the bottom of the carboy and the airlock is bubbling, but quite slowly.

Any ideas or advice?

Rockn_M · Oct 9, 2014

80 is a bet warm but I've done it without any issues. Do you know how much yeast you added? Was it a yeast packet or vial? Did you make a starter? Did you do a temperature correction for the gravity.

Most likely you underpitched the yeast and it took till now to get to a point to show signs of fermentation.

bahnzaijr · Oct 9, 2014

I used the Wyeast Activator Liquid Yeast that came with the kit. I let the yeast incubate for a good two hours in 70 degree weather.

It was showing initial signs of fermentation within 24 hours where was visible by the airlock bubbling slowly.

JonGrafto · Oct 9, 2014

one package of Wyeast on a lager is SEVERLY underpitching...

You need to build up the amount of yeast cells for a lager.

Use Mr. Malty or http://www.yeastcalculator.com for a better idea of how much yeast to pitch...

Rockn_M · Oct 9, 2014

Ya that was underpitched. That's why the gravity hasn't changed. The yeast had about a 72 lag phase and now are starting to ferment. Pitching the correct amount of yeast and temperature control are probably the two most important things that you can do for good tasting beer.

When finished you'll still have beer. Just for next time make sure you use enough yeast.

duboman · Oct 9, 2014

Lagers require a lot more yeast to pitch than a typical ale and lager yeast are bottom fermenters. You underpitched the beer at too warm a temp which is why fermentation appeared to be starting and then you dropped the temp so the yeast then needed additional time to adjust to the new temps.

Temperature is important for all yeast but lagers require more precise control due to the lower temperatures they work at. This all being said, be patient and let it work, typically 10 14 days is my experience in the 50's.