Rookie Question

[catch22]

I have my first brew in primary fermentation for two weeks.It appears that fermentaion has drastically slowed or stopped.It is a lager and I am not going to use a secondary fermentation.It cant be time to bottle yet,so is there anything I can do to regenerate fermentation?

 

[balzern]

Check the gravity - if it has been constant for a couple days then go ahead and bottle.

 

[breez7]

A 'lager' needs to be 'lagered' which means dropping to temps into the low 40s high 30s and let it 'lager' for about 6-10 weeks. That is what is going to clear your beer up and give it that crisp 'lager' taste. This is done after you beer has reached FG.

Since it would be sitting for an extended period of time I recommend a secondary to get that beer off the trub, but you wont know when to do that untill you take a gravity reading and taste for Diacetyl to determin if you need to do a rest or not.

what temps did you ferment at and what yeast did you use?

 

[idigg]

Your first beer is a lager? Are you crazy?

 

[Nova5]

Catch22.... that should tell ya.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Listen to breez7....

and lagers are no harder to make than any other beer except that you have to "keep em colder for longer" before they're ready.

One "rookie mistake" that a lot of new brewers make is the concept of "how to I get fermentation to start again" (wow, I'm using a lot of quotes).

Don't worry about signs of fermentation... they really don't mean a lot at all. As has been suggested, you only need to worry about gravity.

There is a ton of debate on whether a secondary is neccessary but me, personally, I would rack to a secondary before lagering. Again... me, personally, I would also not try to leave ALL of the yeast behind in the primary either. You want the yeast to finish the job.

My recommendation is to take a gravity reading and if you are DRAMATICALLY off your FG, you have an issue and then you can come back and do some reading on stuck fermentation but I doubt you have a real problem. Then rack to a secondary and drop the temp down to the low 40's for a solid 5 or 6 weeks. After that, bring the temp BACK up to about 70 for just a couple of days... and then bottle it.

It'll be fine...

... and don't get too caught up signs of fermentation.

 

[catch22]

Great advice. I'll check tonite then take it from there.
Thanks.