End Of Lager Fermentation Temp

[stef]

I've had a lager going with wyeast czech pils yeast for 16 days and its gone from about 1.046ish to 1.022ish, though i am expecting it to finish reasonably low as there was a fair amount of adjunct plus reasonably cool mash.

Anyway, i've done a D rest and held it warm for a while, now am CCing. But i'm trying to get it to hurry up and finish so i can get a dubbel into the fermenting fridge. Do you think it would be ok to let it rest in secondary at room temp (outside the ferment fridge) for a while to clean itself up?

 

[cdbrown]

So you cc'd it before it reached FG? Any reason for that? My normal process is to pitch about 8, ferment 80% through at 10 and then raise the temp a degree or two each day till it's reached FG. Then CC for a few days to clear before kegging and lagering.

 

[stef]

Well, i usually do exactly what you said- ferment at constant (usually 10 for me), then raise when its almost done, leave for another couple of days then cc. However, theres heaps of sediment/break/protein/i dont know what floating around in it, so i thought i'd CC then rack, to see if can clear it up a bit.

 

[stef]

bump?

 

[jakub76]

Ambient temps for the final few points is fine. In fact a common commercial practice is to only hold at lager temps for 3-4 days then slowly rise to ale temps to finish. It means fermentation happens a lot quicker and the vessels are ready to turn around another beer and make more money. I assisted on a brew day at a brew pub recently and they had their lager fermenter up at 20C to finish.

What is worrying though is that you've crash chilled the yeast before it has finished, this may have stalled it. Try raising the temp and give it an occasional swirl...see what happens but if you dont get any action you may need to throw in some more active yeast.

 

[stef]

No worries, thanks Jakub.

 

[raven19]

Out of interest is your Hydro sample reading taken at room temp (around 20) or at lager temp? At lager temps (10 - 12 degrees) it will throw your FG reading out of whack.

1022 seems mighty high imo. Rack and/or swirl as per jakub's post above.