I have 2gal of oktoberfest slowly bubbling in my cellar. I went with 2 gal simply b/c I didn't have time in advance for a starter and figured 2 gal would be more like an oversized starter and give me some yeast for some 5 gal batches I want to brew. Problem is I was planning to brew tomorrow but not sure what racking would do to the octoberfest while its still bubblin slowly? My ideas are to rack it and save the cake, or tip the carboy and attempt to syphon off some off the cake, or shake the heck out of it and just draw a couple cups off. What would be the best or should I just wait til its done fermenting?
racking a lager while still fermenting
- Thread starter jbuck984
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Wait until it's done. Lagers often take 2-4 weeks in primary, longer if you underpitched. If you rack now, you might stall the fermentation, as well as make it much more difficult to do a decent diacetyl rest. The diacety rest is done after fermentation, while still on the yeast cake. The bigger the yeast cake, the easier time the yeast have to clean up the diacetyl.
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