Zero Airlock Activity on 1st Lager

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jamursch

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So I brewed my first lager kind of hastily on Saturday. Aside from just having room in a fridge to ferment I didn't read too much into it and now I'm paying for it. Here's my current situation.

1. Pitched 1 vial of WL yeast when wort was in mid 70's
2. Wort is currently sitting at 50 degrees with no visible fermentation in airlock and it's going on day 3.

I was thinking of pitching another vial or 2, but haven't taken any gravity readings yet but I'm assuming I have a stalled fermentation with the whole debacle.

Any sage advice is welcome. :)
 
So I brewed my first lager kind of hastily on Saturday. Aside from just having room in a fridge to ferment I didn't read too much into it and now I'm paying for it. Here's my current situation.

1. Pitched 1 vial of WL yeast when wort was in mid 70's
2. Wort is currently sitting at 50 degrees with no visible fermentation in airlock and it's going on day 3.

I was thinking of pitching another vial or 2, but haven't taken any gravity readings yet but I'm assuming I have a stalled fermentation with the whole debacle.

Any sage advice is welcome. :)

Mid 70's is a bit high but would assumed you should of got some fermentation going. If you didn't want to make a starter for yeast it would have been best to pitch 2-3 of your WL vials. Pitching additional vials at this point would be your best bet.
 
Of my last four lagers, only one had any airlock activity. GRAVITY READINGS! I am just about to keg an Oktoberfest (1.056 OG) with German Lager yeast. I did a big starter (1.4L), but didn't see any airlock activity, so I took a gravity reading on day 6. Gravity was 1.030, so there WAS fermentation. I let it sit another 8 days and took a reading last night, and was down close to my FG at 1.015, so I started my diacityl rest.

So, first off, you REALLY need to do a starter for any lager. One vial of WL is wayyyyy underpitching, and you would expect the yeast to lag terribly when you underpitch, so there's you first issue. It is quite possible that your fermentation has not started yet, as you should have pitched about 4X more yeast cells than you did.

Next, airlock activity doesn't mean much. You should expect a lager fermentation to be slow and clean, and airlock activity would be minimal or non-existent.

SO, take a gravity reading and report back. You either need to pitch more, need to wait longer, or both.

Good luck!
 
Krausen and/or airlock activity doesn't mean anything, take a reading and you will know for sure.
 
I have brewed plenty of lagers that don't show airlock activity after 3 days even with proper pitching rates. Colder wort/beer will also absorb more CO2 so it will take longer to get to airlock. +1 on your lag time being longer with underpitching and pitching warm. Remember to aerate well on lagers. I use O2 for 60 secs through diffusion stone.
 
I'll say the opposite. I've never had a brew that didn't show activity. If it isn't giving off gas it isn't active. The only other possibility is that the fermenter isn't well sealed. My latest lager was showing activity after a day and a half at 45, pitched cold, but I had a big starter.

Start worrying, don't relax, but still have a homebrew.

But really, you should pitch some more yeast and check your seal.
 
I'll say the opposite. I've never had a brew that didn't show activity. If it isn't giving off gas it isn't active. The only other possibility is that the fermenter isn't well sealed. My latest lager was showing activity after a day and a half at 45, pitched cold, but I had a big starter.

Start worrying, don't relax, but still have a homebrew.

But really, you should pitch some more yeast and check your seal.

I had a good friend who is new to brewing but loves German Helles' over about 3 weeks ago. I made a double batch of Helles and sent half of it home with him and a healthy pitch of yeast (which I had made of stepped up starters form a vial). I oxygenated both our batches before he left. All he had to do was pitch and ferment. I gave him my exact fermentation temperature schedule for the beer and he sought to mimic it. After 4 days he emailed me and asked when it was going to start. Mine was happily fermenting away by this point. I told him it should have been well underway and he couldn't figure it out.

I knew he was fermenting in a bucket and told him that he couldn't rely on his airlock for fermentation information. He was reluctant to open the bucket and sought out more yeast from different sources. The yeast I had was the Helles Platinum Strain from Whitelabs, and I knew nobody had it. He pitched from the same starter I did. He SWORE it never did anything.

So the other day I went to his place for a beer tasting. I asked to look at it. I asked if I could open the bucket. I opened the bucket and looked at him and said: "Congrats, it's time to start the lagering phase".

Moral of the story. Check the beer first before you start pulling your hair out trying to repitch yeast or some other solutions.

That said, OP, you pitched way too high. Don't ever do that again ;)
 
Ok, thanks for all the advice guys. Here's an update.
Tuesday I went and bought 2 dry packets of dry lager yeast and pitched them both after re-hydrating. Wed morning I had bubbles in my airlock and a very distinct aroma in the fridge telling me the magic was happening. It may have been ok, but everyone agreed it was way under pitched so adding more yeasties to help with the workload couldn't have hurt.

Next time, I'll make a HUGE starter and let the Wort chill down over night prior to pitching. #Live&Learn
 
Tested tonight and I'm already close to my FG. Sitting at 1.012 right now and while having a hint of clove it's pretty smooth for the most part. Lagering should clean some of that up I hope.


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