First Lager-when To Rack?

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jakethesnake559

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Hi all, I'm after some help with my first Lager.
I did a boil up of 3kg of DME, some specialty grains and hops.
Got it down to about 20C and pitched 2 packets of rehydrated saflager w-34/70.
Put it in the beer fridge set to it's highest temp (keeps it at around 10C-12C) which I think is OK.
The OG was 1.060 and the airlock started bubbling within 24 hrs.
It's been a week now and airlock is only bubbling every 60 seconds or so.
Took another gravity reading and it's on about 1.012...not sure what to expect the final gravity to be.
I expected the lager yeast to ferment a bit slower than this, and now I'm wondering when I should rack it to the secondary.
Would it be OK to rack it now, or should I give it the std 2 weeks?
And what about diacetyl resting??
Any help would be appreciated.
:icon_cheers:
 
Hi jake. You will need consecutive gravity readings to be the same to ensure that fermentation is over. It will have fermented out a bit quicker than expected due to the higher pitching temp. I don't use that yeast so not sure bout how much diacetyl it may produce, given the high pitch temp then you may need to get the temp back up to 14-15 degrees for 48 hours to reduce diacetyl. Ideally it should be done when the fermentation is about 75%
 
Thanks for your help Razz. Yeah, I was thinking that the diacetyl rest might be good thing to do. Tasted it this morning and didn't get much of the buttery taste I have read so much about. Given it's probably already passed the 75% I will up the temp now and leave it for a couple of days as suggested. So after the 48 hours, do you put it back to the original temp until fermentation is completed? Or does 2 days at a higher temp force the fermentation to complete already?
 
If the D rest is done correctly the fermentation will finish during the rest, then slowly drop the temp down to 0-1 degrees (about two degrees per day) and cold condition the beer for as long as you want. I usually do this and once I'm happy with the taste/clarity then I keg. Last pils I made was cold conditioned for about five weeks.
 

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