Submitted by miket on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 20:09
Posted in
Hey guys.
I just brewed a 5.5 gallon batch of Classic American Pilsner (my first lager) on Sunday and I'm having a problem with fermentation lag time. Or maybe it's not a problem and I'm just not used to brewing lagers. In any case, here was my procedure:
Thursday: Brew up a 2 gallon yeast starter with WLP800 Pilsner Lager yeast. Yeast pitched and starter fermented at ~50F.
Saturday night: Drop temperature of starter to ~40F and hold there overnight to drop out most of the yeast.
Sunday: Brew 5.5 gallon all-grain batch (mash T= 148F), chill down to 46F, pitch yeast after pouring off most of the starter beer.
Sunday evening until today (Wednesday): Allow the beer to warm to 50F, and then maintain between 48-50F in a refrigerator with temperature controller.
I still see no activity in the airlock about three days after pitching. Has anyone experienced this when fermenting lagers before? I expected fermentation to be a bit slower relative to ale fermentation, and to take a bit longer, but I guess I wasn't prepared for such a long lag and I'm getting nervous. Any advice or stories about your personal experiences would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Mike
I also just started my first
I also just started my first lager. I did my yeast starter for 2 days at room temp, then chilled to 55, kept it on a stirplate. Chilled wort to 55, pitched a 2L starter, and had activity within 12 hours. at 24 hours, i see a 1/2" krausen forming.
Any chance thats too cold for that yeast strain?
White labs suggests that the
White labs suggests that the WLP800 should be fermented between 50-55F. Like I said I did initially chill the wort to around 46 prior to pitching, so maybe that was a little too cold. In case you're curious, fermentation began shortly after I posted my last message, and is still going on now, about 3 weeks later. The gravity is currently around 1.025 from an O.G. of 1.060 (hoping to get it down around 1.012), and I recently raised the temperature up to 60F for a diacetyl rest. Fermentation picked up quite a bit after the temperature raise. I'll be sure to bring some to a meeting once it's done.
Thanks for the response.