Really slow start on lager fermentation

What temperature are your primaries right now?

Cheers!

 

No reason at all to be concerned yet. Your starter should give you all the reassurance you need. I suppose we can assume your answer to Jack's question is not alarming.

 

Given that information I would have thought that you would see signs of fermentation at 30 hours post pitch.

How is it looking now?

Cheers!

 

It's on the longer side. But sometimes, for whatever reasons, yeast take their sweet time. Recently, it took a pitch around 40 hours to get going in a 1.047 wort I brewed, and that was from a new Wyeast starter pack. I was worried but eventually it took off.

 

Ah, sorry for the confusion.

I have brewed about 60ish lagers and they all have started waaaay earlier than 30 hours but I pitch in the upper 50's F and permit the beer to cool down to low-mid 50's F. I was thinking that maybe you pitched cold (e.g., mid-upper 40's) and that was the reason for the slow start. Maybe 51 degrees F is still cold for your yeast?

Anyhow, it appears that things are going OK.

Cheers!

 

Your observation is a clear indication that you underpitched your yeast. I don't think it's any more complicated than that. Cheers!

 

Minor consideration...but cold fermenting also means more dissolved CO2 in solution before reaching saturation. So adding several hours to first bubbles is definitely not unreasonable...going from 68F to 50F means going from .17g/L to .24g/L CO2 before a bubble escapes solution...that 40% more dissolved CO2. Always try harder with lagers and yeast pitch, but I wouldn't worry too much. 48 hours is my freak out point with lagers if not seeing activity (36 for ales).

 

Dave, how long does it typically take to see signs of fermentation for your lagers?

Cheers!

 

Be patient, and be prepared for them to take a week or so longer to get you to where you want them to be. They're working, and they figured out the task you assigned them, so leave them alone and let them do their job.
As long as there's fermentation activity. The rest is up to you to leave them be.

 

I guess I would say 24-36 hours is pretty normal for me with lagers, but I don't really pay that close attention...if I'm confident about my yeast and pitch, I don't really monitor the fermenter closely. That said, if two days in and nothing is showing...then yeah, i reach for plan B...usually a sachet of 05. Been a long time since i've needed to go there though.

What about you Jack? Seems like you do a lot more lagers than me.

 

I typically see signs of fermentation in less than 24 hours but as I pointed out above my strategy is to pitch at the higher end of the recommended range for lager yeasts (e.g., above 55 degrees F) and over the first day or so slowly lower the fermentation temperature to below 55 degrees F (I typically shoot for a fermentation temperature of 50-52 degrees F).

After attending the presentation by José Pizarro of Fermentis at this year’s HomebrewCon (did you attend that presentation?) I may have to consider trying fermenting my lagers at warmer temperatures since there is empirical data that shows this ‘works’ too.

Cheers!

 

Did not attend, but have been fermenting lagers warmer lately...more like 58-60F. Have a lager on tap right now that people are loving that was fermented at 60F ambient using mangrove jack's bohemian lager.

 

Well, that is one more data point for fermenting lagers warm(er).

Cheers!