First lager troubles.

[elixir]

I did my first lager this past sunday. Didnt really aerate the wort, rehydrated a packet of s23 and sat it in the fridge until it cooled and pitched that into my 50 degree wort. I read this forum quite a bit and got worried that I underpitched. 24 hours later I came home from my LHBS with another packet of s23. pitched that and when I pitched it there wasnt much ferm activity in the wort. 12 hours after pitched the second packet of s23 my lager was fermenting and has a nice layer of krausen.


Now here I am 10 hours after and the krausen is still there but the bubbles have slowed down from my blowoff to almost a standstill? I have no idea what is going on. I have major respect for you lager brewers. This is a pita! Might not try this again until I have starter and aeration equipment. Hopefully my lager is still fermenting...

 

[billym99]

I just fermented my first lager two months ago. I used WLP838 (1L starter)... very slow and "calm" fermentation, nothing like ales I have done. 1.048 OG down to 1.016 in about three weeks, not too bad although I was hoping for something around 1.011. I checked it daily and never saw vigorous activity, normally saw very little activity at all.

One question, what temp are you at right now? I see that S23 is ideally fermented at 53-59, you said you pitched at 50. Fermentis recommends increasing dosage for anything below 53 (which you did). If you're below that maybe raise the temp a bit?

http://charlesfaram.co.uk/Portals/0/Docs/Fermentis/SFG_S23.pdf

 

[elixir]

Fermenting at 54 this morning its back to a steady bubble