Fermenting

I brewed a Shiner Bock Clone on 4/14/13 and I used a lager yeast, it has now been 10 days and I'm still getting a lot of activity in the air chamber. My previous experiences has been about a 5 day chamber activity. Is this normal? Do I continue to wait it out before I place in secondary vessel?

baltaperales said:

I brewed a Shiner Bock Clone on 4/14/13 and I used a lager yeast, it has now been 10 days and I'm still getting a lot of activity in the air chamber. My previous experiences has been about a 5 day chamber activity. Is this normal? Do I continue to wait it out before I place in secondary vessel?

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What's the current SG? If it's 1.020ish or so, it's time for the diacetyl rest and you could go ahead and do that.

What temp have you been fermenting this at? What strain of yeast did you use?

baltaperales said:

I brewed a Shiner Bock Clone on 4/14/13 and I used a lager yeast, it has now been 10 days and I'm still getting a lot of activity in the air chamber. My previous experiences has been about a 5 day chamber activity. Is this normal? Do I continue to wait it out before I place in secondary vessel?

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Yes it's pretty normal. Lager yeasts are Low and Slow. That's low temp and slow fermentation. But on the other hand, you rarely need a blowoff tube.
I agree with Yooper(she's always right!!) that it's probably time to warm it up for your D-rest.
And don't move it off your yeast cake until you are within a couple points of your FG.
With lagers, you need patience in spades.

JimRausch said:

I agree with Yooper(she's always right!!)

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Could you please talk to my husband? And kids? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for the feed back. I have been fermenting at 52 deg using wyeast #2308. What is considered an ideal temp for the diacetyl rest? I recently read up on it and I am relatively unfamiliar with this process.

baltaperales said:

Thank you all for the feed back. I have been fermenting at 52 deg using wyeast #2308. What is considered an ideal temp for the diacetyl rest? I recently read up on it and I am relatively unfamiliar with this process.

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Usually, 10 degrees above fermentation temperature is appropriate for a diacetyl rest. I like to go to the diacetyl rest when the beer is about 75% of the way to FG, or at about 1.020, depending on the beer. Then the temperature is raised for 48 hours, or until the beer is completely done. I often taste for diacetyl before racking, just to make sure there is no hint of diacetyl at all at that time, and then rack and the lagering is begun.

Thanks for the info. I was going to raise it to 60 deg, now that I got your advice, I'll raise to 62 and test on Saturday morning before I rack. I'll let how it turns out.

I'll go ahead and try the cold crash. This will save me a lot of time if I don't have to do a secondary. Thanks for the advice.

Yooper said:

Usually, 10 degrees above fermentation temperature is appropriate for a diacetyl rest. I like to go to the diacetyl rest when the beer is about 75% of the way to FG, or at about 1.020, depending on the beer. Then the temperature is raised for 48 hours, or until the beer is completely done. I often taste for diacetyl before racking, just to make sure there is no hint of diacetyl at all at that time, and then rack and the lagering is begun.

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Yooper, whats the difference between raising it over 48 hours to that temp, or going 2 degrees a day for a week? I've read people do that as well.

Pratzie said:

Yooper, whats the difference between raising it over 48 hours to that temp, or going 2 degrees a day for a week? I've read people do that as well.

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Nothing that I can think of. Slower doesn't seem like it would do anything. I've seen people lower the temperature slowly, but not raise it slowly.

I don't raise it over 48 hours- I just raise the temperature and it takes a while for 5 gallons of beer to warm up. Then I let it sit at the diacetyl rest temperature for about 24 hours before making sure it's indeed finish and that there is no hint of diacetyl.

As far as keeping it in primary, I don't. When I'm lagering, I lager off of the yeast cake. If it was a very short term time, I guess it would be ok but for most lagers I lager at least 6 weeks. I don't like the flavor impact from weeks on a yeast cake as a lager should be really "clean" and crisp and without lager character. Perhaps other lager experts do lager on the yeast cake, though.

I have gradually raised the temp to 62 deg and it has been at this temp for about 48 hours now and I am still seeing activity in the air lock. It has been 14 days since I brewed. It seems a little unusual that even after the D-rest that the activity continues. Any Ideas?

baltaperales said:

I have gradually raised the temp to 62 deg and it has been at this temp for about 48 hours now and I am still seeing activity in the air lock. It has been 14 days since I brewed. It seems a little unusual that even after the D-rest that the activity continues. Any Ideas?

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The warmer temperature will allow more co2 to come out of solution. It might bubble a long, long time. If the SG doesn't change, though, it's done.

The SG is at 1.011. It has been the same for the past 48 hours. It tasted great and I will rack in the next few days. I'm going to let it settle a few more days to see how the cold crash works.