First Lager Fermentation Question: Stalled or Normal by Lager Standards?

I brewed my first lager (Baltic Porter) 9 days ago. Either it stalled due to underpitch or it's on the normal course and I'm just panicking because I'm only used to ale fermentation attenuation time frames.

I read the write up on braukaizer which kind of describes my ferment as being normal to some degree I believe, but I'm still anxious and deciding whether or not to repitch today or tomorrow. If you have experience brewing lagers, I'd love to hear your opinion please.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers
"Primary Fermentation

Because of the slower yeast metabolism at lower fermentation temperatures, lager fermentations take longer than ale fermentations of the same wort. While ale primary fermentations are generally done after 3 - 6 days and final gravity is reached at that time, for lagers it can take 1 - 3 weeks and the final gravity may not be reached after the completed primary fermentation.

In the classical lager brewing method, as described above, the primary fermentation is over after about 7 - 10 days, but the attenuation of the beer is not yet at the attenuation level that is desired at bottling time. Good fermentation management allows the yeast to be actively fermenting even during the lagering (cold storage) phase. This need to be kept in mind when brewers talk about the length of primary fermentation for their lagers: What was the attenuation when the beer was racked to a secondary and what was the attenuation of the beer when it was done?"


Onto My Beer...

It was a partigyle batch that came out as follows (btw: some boil kettle fermentable additions were made to the second runnings beer as well as a longer / harder boil to get the OG up that high):

1540 billion pitched (10% short of what MrMalty recommended for a lager) into 57F wort and set to 53% for primary fermentation 9 days ago.

My Fermentation observations thus far:

Both at high krausen in less than 48 hours.

Krausen is still thick on day 9 of the 1st runnings beer fermentation, although airlock activity is finally starting to slow. Plenty of yeast in suspension still, as observed in my hydrometer sample.

Krausen was dissipated on the 2nd runnings beer by day 5 and airlock activity slowed to a crawl by then as well. Still some signs of moderate fermentation (bites, as I like to call them, on the surface of the wort) today on day 9. Hydro sample is much clearer than the 1st runnings beer, but visibly still a decent amount of yeast in suspension.

I know the basics like airlock activity isn't always a sign of fermentation from my experience brewing ales of course.

Onto the yeast used.......


WLP 838 South German Lager

1 vial in a 1500ml stir plate starter for 30 hours, crashed for 24 hours, decanted and then stepped up to a 4000ml stir plate starter for 30 hours.

PLUS

2 vials in a 4000ml stir plate starter for 30 hours, crashed for 24 hours, decanted and then stepped up again in a 1500ml stir plate starter for 30 hours.

Should have been about 1540 billion cells in total, which was about 200 billion less than mrmalty called for.

I'm also a bit worried that, due to my inexperience with lager yeast, the starters might not have completely flocculated in 24 hours prior to me decanting. My ale yeast always seems to be fully flocc'd in that time frame and I never even thought that lager yeast might take longer to crash cool due to it's acclimation to colder temperatures.

1ST RUNNINGS BALTIC PORTER

1.095 OG
1.052 Current SG (current apparent attenuation is 42.5%)
1.023 Desired FG

43 out of 72 gravity points already fermented (42.5% ap. at. thus far is 60% of the way to my desired 73.8% ap. at.)

I plan on waiting a few more days before ramping up for a diacetyl rest. I really wanted to SG to be closer to 1.041 before I do the diacetyl rest on this beer, but I'm worried I won't be anywhere near it anytime soon.

2ND RUNNINGS HARD ROOT BEER

1.078 OG
1.031 Current SG (current apparent attenuation is 55.5%)
1.016 (Desired FG)

47 out of 62 gravity points already fermented (55.5% ap. at. thus far is 76% of the way to my desired 79% ap. at.)

I just started gradually ramping up to a diacetyl rest on the second runnings beer.

 

So basically, your low to mid gravity lager fermentations run just like most ale fermentations

I agree that it most likely isn't necessary from a diacetyl production level, but I'm more doing it with the mindset of helping the yeast get the beer down to the target FG. It's a strategy I read online and it was recommended to begin the ramp up when you are 75% of the way to your desired FG. The second runnings beer just hit that mark so I began the process. The first runnings beer hasn't yet so I'm holding off for now. I just figured my SG would be about 10 points lower already on this one by now.

See above response to Jack and thank you both for the initial replies!

Yes I aerated with direct 02 for 120 seconds on the 1st runnings beer and 90 seconds on the 2nd runnings beer.

 

One other thing that comes to mind is that my thermowrap heat pads that sits in my chest freezers and are hooked up to my dual temperature controllers both recently kicked the bucket. So I've been fermenting this baltic porter with just the chest freezer to run the cooling mode only but the temperature probe is in a thermowell inside the wort.

So ultimately, the carboys are sitting in chest freezers that only turn on when the wort temperature raises by 1 degree above target and then turns off until it lowers to 1 degree below target. At that point, ambient temperature is the only thing warming the wort back up to the target fermentation temperature. So I'm sure that is warming process is taking much longer than usual. For that reason, I decided to try and compensate a bit by setting my desired fermentation temperature on the higher end of the recommended range.

 

4 days later (13 days in primary altogether) and the 1st runnings beer is down another 5 points despite no more airlock activity. It's now 1.047 (50% ap. at. and 67% of the way to my desired FG) with plenty of yeast still in suspension.

 

Gravity is at a standstill on the 2nd runnings beer and it's quite clear so I pitched 2 packs of Saflager today.