Will This Bock finish out

[mi6op]

Last Saturday i brewed 10 gal of chocolate bock, starting gravity of 10.65ish if I remember right. I've been fermenting in a temp control fridge at 50F for a week. Looking at carboy activity I'd say the yeast is on the home stretch of being done. Took a gravity reading and it was 10.26. We shook the carboys to help wake up any yeast that would like to go back to work.

We only had one pack of Wyeast Bavarian Lager so we activated it the day before brew day and it was puffed all out ready come pitching time and that bag of yeast was split between the beer.

I have been told by others that a fully activated Wyeast pack is good for 15gal of beer. While I"m still on the fence about this logic I may be seeing that my split the yeast for this batch may prove that an activated bag of Lager yeast is only good for 5 gal of wort.

Your thoughts

 

[asterix404]

What was the recipe? You way under pitched. When you do a lager, you need twice or three times as much yeast. This is why many people (including myself) prefer to use dry yeast. Also the starter should be done at fermentation temp which might be hard for a lager. I would expect it to get to 20-22 in the next week or so but I need to look at the recipe first and mash temps.

 

[lowlife]

According to mrmalty you should have added 9 or ten packs really or a big starter. Anything else is less than ideal. It will take longer since you dont have anywhere near a decent of amount of yeast.

 

[Boohausen]

Did u use the activator pack or the propgator, I assume the activator pack, with a 1.065 grav and being a lager warm up the temp 5 degrees for 4-5 days, this will stimulate more growth, also if and when u do a diacetly rest the remaining sugars and off flavors will finish and mellow out lagers typically stall towards the end, only a small temp change will fix it, also ur hydrometer doesnt know the differnce between unfermentable and fermentable sugars, only mash temp or extract % will dictate sample ur reading ur taste buds wont lie

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I have been told by others that a fully activated Wyeast pack is good for 15gal of beer. While I"m still on the fence about this logic I may be seeing that my split the yeast for this batch may prove that an activated bag of Lager yeast is only good for 5 gal of wort.

Your thoughts

1 smack pack isn't even enough for most 5 gallon batches. Unless it's extremely fresh and I'm brewing something that is less than 1.050, I always make a starter.

With lagers, you need about twice as much yeast as ales. So even 4 packs wouldn't have been ideal. 1 pack between the two means that yeast is very strained and possibly completely done.

I honestly don't know that much about yeast, but I would say if it doesn't finish, add another pack to both.

 

[asterix404]

Mr Malty does lie horribly though. It's almost impossible to get a good beer from a vial or smack pack if you believe everything that it tells you without creating close to a gallons worth of starter which is just silly. No, the problem is still that you under pitched and badly. How much is up for debate but I would have created about a quart of starter for this the day before if you have a stir plate or about a week before if you don't.

Also you can just use dry yeast in which case you just buy another packet and life moves on. I have only had terrible luck with largers and liquid yeast even pitching correctly.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

This is the first time I've heard anyone say that Mr. Malty lies horribly. How so?

BTW, I'm not being smart@$$ at all. How do you know that it's lying?

 

[mi6op]

What if i bought another Activator pack, smack, let it work 24 hours and then pour half into each respective carboy. Perhaps raise the chamber temp to 55f.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

There's not really a reason to let it sit for 24 hours (as far as I know, at least). After 5 or so hours, it's usually as ready as it will ever be.

I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what I'd do. I'm doing my first lager on thursday so I am far from an expert on them. Seems to me, though, that as drastically underpitched as this beer might be, I'd taste it to see if it's even worth going forward with. If so, I guess technically you could take a gravity reading and then figure out how much yeast you would need for that much wort at that gravity and probably split the pack.