Long Fermentation

[acarlson]

Right, so I am new to all this stuff and i currently have my first brew on the go. It's a Munich Larger the Brewcraft kit came with. I was told it would take a week in the fermenter. It is now 2 weeks and the SG is still around 1.012 and the air lock is still bubbling away. I understand that means fermentation is still carrying on.
I'm quite happy to carry on waiting and checking the SG until it stabilises below 1.008 or so but I am just wondering if I have done something wrong or whether that is just the way of things.
The brew did drop down to 14 degrees for a few days in the first week because i'm in Christchurch and the weather went mental, November snow etc.
And one last thing, does this long fermentation mean it will also take longer once I have bottled it?
Thanks

[Chris]

Lagers need to be fermented below 15 degs (ideally) so don't worry about that temperature.

I am guessing that you pitched the yeast that came with the kit straight into the wort? It sounds to me like your yeast aren't active enough. The first thing I'd do with your next batch is get some decent yeast (e.g Saflager S-23) and rehydrate/proof the yeast before pitching it.

Read this chapter about yeast: John Palmer - Yeast

How often is the airlock producing gas? You could try adding some more yeast.

Not sure if bottle conditioning will take longer; if the yeast are a bit slow I guess it may take longer to clear. All I can suggest is leaving it a few weeks then trying a bottle.

[James P]

Hi acarlson

I do lagers all the time, munich and dutch were (and still are) my kit favourites. The kit yeast is designed to work between 18 - 24C, however lower is better in my opinion.

Did you add a brew enhancer? If so I'm guessing #60, and with this the FG will be up in the 1.010 - 1.012 range as there is a lot more unfermentable sugars in the enhancers. If your hydrometer readings are stable every day for two or three days you may have reached your final gravity.

As chris has asked: How often is the airlock bubbling?

Bottle conditioning does take a little longer, especially if you are using saflager 23 and lagering your beer properly, some of mine have taken 3 - 6 months condition and carbonate, but it's worth the wait!

[Chris]

I made a munich lager with a pilsener enhancer a few weeks back ; FG was 1.009 after a couple of weeks (and stopped) so don't be suprised if you don't reach 1.008. My effort was with 2 pkts of S23 as well.

[James P]

Hey Chris,

I will admit all mine are only 1 pkt of S23 / S189 / Wyeast 2042 etc pitched at 20 - 25C and cooled to 12C. I have had one lager go to 1.008, but that has been an expection for me. What temperature range was your primary fermentation? Do you secondary?

I do 2 weeks @ 12C, then rack to secondary for 4 weeks @ 2C then bottle / keg.

[Chris]

Ah, it could be due to the temp, mine was higher than it should have been (18-20). Yep I rack off once the gas emission decreases significantly, then give it a min of 2 weeks in the secondary before bottling. It would have been around 1.012 before racking off. Would have been pitched around 30 deg C.

It's rare for me to make lager so I don't have the facility to keep the fermenters cool. That could explain why I was getting 1.009.

[acarlson]

Strewth, thanks for all the fast information flying around, great. The airlock is bubbling slowly, every 15-20 mins I guess, certainly slowing up quite a bit. I did a SG test today and it is a bit above 1.010, it was 1.012 on Saturday. I'll test it again in a day or two and I guess if it hasn't changed I'll get it in the bottle. I just really don't want exploding bottles, it'll make a mess of the living room.
Cheers,
Adam

[Chris]

.010 is getting about there. I usually test SG over the course of 5-6 days towards the end of secondary fermentation, but if you're only using the primary it's probably best not to leave it sitting on the trub for longer than necessary, so a few consecutive days' readings should be OK.

When it comes to bottling just check your bottles are in really good condition (assuming you're using swap-a-crate bottles like I do). It's best to batch prime to rather than adding a small amount of sugar to each bottle - very easy to overprime doing this.

You mentioned making a mess of the living room - keep them indoors for a few days but then they need to go somewhere cool. I tend to make ales rather than lagers so mine go in the garage.