Stuck Lager Fermentation?

[schematix]

This is the first lager I've brewed since moving and I changed a few things in my process and wanted to see if anyone had any input on this.

2.5 weeks ago I brewed a Munich Helles.

The recipe was as follows for a 10G batch:
16lb Best Pilsner Malt
3.37lb Great Western Premium 2-row
2lb Best Munich Malt (8L)

I mashed for an hour at 154 down to 152. After an hour I pulled a decoction of 4G and boiled it for 15 minutes. Added it back and hit right around 170 for mash out. Lautered really well. Boiled for 90 minutes and then chilled down to 48.

I measured an OG of 1.056 (on target).

For the yeast I took 1 tube of White Labs 838 and pitched it to a 1.5L starter and let it run it's course on the stir plate. I then crashed it, and pitched the slurry to 6L and let them ferment to completion. I crashed and decanted those, and pitched the slurry to the batch.

The beer was fermenting strong in less than 24 hours. It remained strong for about 10 days and the kraussen started to fall. Yesterday it looked like the kraussen had completely fallen so I went ahead and decided to keg. Normally I would let it ride in the primary for about 7 weeks but I wanted to keg this batch since I had kegs open.

During kegging I pulled a gravity reading and to my surprise it was around 1.030 (about 50% attenuation). The sample tasted really good (no esters or butter) but was a touch sweet.

So it's kegged and i'm going to hold at 50 for another week or two. What are the odds that this guy is stuck and i'm going to have syrup? Most of what I've read seems to indicate that the fermentation should be more complete by now.

Thoughts?

 

[RCCOLA]

It's probably not done. I always let my lagers warm up to room temp as activity falls off. This allows the yeast to finish fermentation strong and eliminate diacetyl and acetaldehyde.

If it were my batch, I'd pull the gas post, fit a piece of tubing over it, and rig an airlock on it. Then allow it to sit at room temp for several days.

I never, never rack a lager off the cake until I have verified the FG and taste it to see if it needs longer on the cake to clean up.

 

[schematix]

In the past I've always done the "diacetyl rest" - this is the first time I didn't. I was trying to do a more traditional fermentation schedule.

I think i'm going to at leave it at 50F for another 2 weeks and vent it regularly. Hopefully racking off the cake didn't stall out the fermentation.

 

[schematix]

Going to bump this again and see if anyone has tried this before...

I am getting to the end of the first of 2 kegs of this beer and find it to be pretty much undrinkable by itself due to the lack of alcohol and cloying sweetness. There are no off flavors. So I've been mixing a shot of vodka into it, or mixing it 50/50 with Bud Light Platinum (which actually makes a great beer) in order to wash it down.

So it got me thinking... I just brewed another similar strength and color lager 3 weeks ago, and in a couple more weeks i'll be kegging those (fortunately those went much better and will likely be the best beer i've made to date). I was thinking that since this beer really isn't that good, why not give it a second chance at fermentation? After i rack one of the new lagers i was going to drain the old keg onto the yeast cake and see what happens.

The old lager has been hanging at 1.030 for a few months now and is fully carbed. I was just going to hook up a beer line and put it straight into the ferm. Anyone ever tried anything crazy like this before?

 

[schematix]

I kegged my newer lager this afternoon. Hit all the numbers to the point from start to finish and it tastes fantastic already at only 5.5 weeks old. I'm going to let it lager for at least a few more weeks until I touch it.

I did decide to go ahead and push the keg of partially fermented beer out onto the cake of the new lager. FYI if you ever decide to do this, make sure you don't pump CO2 into the fermenter when the keg blows. Talk about a mess!

I've never heard of anyone doing this so I will update as to whether or not this turns out OK.