When do I know my lager is done and ready for bottling?

[Lyttlewilly]

So I'm brewing my first lager, and it has been sitting in my fridge lagering for about 3 weeks now. The air lock is still slowly bubbling about 1 minute between bubbles. Now I know the most accurate way to know when fermentation is complete is to take successive gravity readings until there is no change, but I just don't feel like wasting a ton of beer especially if its not close to being finished. What amount of time between bubbles is a good indicator that fermentation is near the end?

 

[pompeiisneaks]

I've never heard that bubbles is a consistent, useful way of knowing. Just let it sit for three weeks or maybe four in primary, then lager in secondary for 3-4 more. Make sure to take a gravity reading to ensure it's down where you need it, but otherwise, waiting another week can never hurt.

Edit: 3-4 for a simpler lager, complex or higher abc beers need more lagering time.

 

[Johnny_Crunch]

what's wrong with just floating the hydrometer on top of the fermenting beer in the bucket?

 

[Yooper]

what's wrong with just floating the hydrometer on top of the fermenting beer in the bucket?

That's hard to do in a carboy!

I'm confused here, as you mentioned the beer was lagering, but still bubbling. Fermentation is done at 50 degrees or so, and then the beer is racked and the lagering is done at fridge temperatures.

Are you in the fermentation stage, or the lagering stage? If you're already in the lagering stage, you would have taken an SG at the end of primary as you need to be at FG before lagering. If the FG was fine then, it's fine now.

 

[pompeiisneaks]

ahh Yoopers 100% right, I didn't notice that. Are you just using the term incorrectly? The lagering phase is in secondary to age out the beer in much cooler environment that fermentation was done. I usually do about 50-54 for fermentation and about 35 or so for lagering. Also agree w/ the hydrometer in the bucket... that only works in buckets, I don't have them anymore, only use carboys... kinda hard to get a fermenter in and out of a carboy... but I do want to go to a refractometer soon, much less beer lost in sampling

 

[Lyttlewilly]

So I'm pretty sure I made a mistake and threw the beer in the fridge a bit early. I only let it ferment for 2 weeks at 54deg. Then reracked and threw it in the fridge at 36deg. So I guess I'm just slowing down the final fermentation then huh? I guess I will just leave it in for another week or so and then bottle it. This friday will have been 5 weeks since brew day. Any other suggestions? Besides taking a SG reading to ensure fermentation is complete before beginning the lagering process.

 

[weirdboy]

I dunno I think my last lager took like 2-3 months from grain to glass. About 6 weeks of fermentation and another 4-6 lagering.

 

[pompeiisneaks]

You may have lagered a bit early, but you can lager longer, and it will finish up. (racking to secondary, and then dropping temps is lagering, or at least the temp drop is. Secondary reduces the chance of autolysis) just leave it be for a few more weeks to a month, check to see if the SG is near what the expected FG should be, and you should be good. The yeast still works that cold, just much slower, and cleans up really well.

 

[Lyttlewilly]

Very cool, thanks for all your help!