Super slow lager yeast

What was the previous Octoberfest OG?, if it was a very high OG maybe yeast is a bit stressed due high alcohol content...just thinking.I would suggest you to give it a shake and rise temp a bit to see what happen.

 

W-a-y too soon to think about re-pitching, let alone an ale yeast. My advice is to let it ride another week and see where it's at.

 

How old was the slurry?

 

That is too slow for a lager, even a Doppelbock. My last 1.084 Doppelbock was done with the D-rest and at FG in 8 days.

 

But what would you do about it at this point? I'd ride it out.

 

I think as long as the gravity is still moving, I would not re-pitch. I have known of even lower gravity lagers (1.055-ish) taking this long. (Not mine, but I will say that mine never seem to be quite as fast as hopfenunmalz's either, who has the whole lager fermentation schedule wired.)

 

I would check the gravity in a few days, and if not moving much, pitch a new starter slurry.

 

Just curious, why do you say healthy and two days old? Why I ask is if I make a big beer and let it sit and condition for three weeks after primary, rack the beer and put the slurry in the refrigerator for two days, I wouldn't call the yeast two days old and healthy. If I was confident on the cell count I'd add in some non-aerated wort to let the yeast get healthy again.

My scenario is of course just for demonstration purposes, but the size of the slurry seems to be good and you aerated, yeast health seems to be the only thing in question.

 

I would consider notching the temp up a couple degrees. A couple times I've had lagers that seem stalled at the low end of the temp range that revive at the high end of the range. I'd gradually notch the temp up. I'd probably try 54 for a few days, then 56 for a few days, then maybe even 58 for a few days. If that doesn't get results, maybe pitch an ale yeast, but pitch one that is already active (make a starter). If that is your recourse, try to keep the temps close to lagering range, using something that gives good results at low temperatures, such as an alt, Chico, or Nottingham strain. That way if the lager yeast wakes up, they won't be too outside their recommended range.
Good luck.

 

From any presentation that I've heard, you should never re-aerate at this point. For one thing, and I don't recommend this - but I've been told that you don't have to aerate. Evidently you can add the yeast to fresh wort and let it sit on a stir-plate for about fours hours. But the window of time to be on the stir plate is hard to determine and going to short or too long will have negative effects.

But I don't see why re-aerating would help. I don't think that it's a cell count issues, it's cell health. If you want to re-pitch you only need to pitch active healthy yeast.

 

Maybe stir gently to rouse yeast, but I have similar reservations about adding oxygen.

 

You likely did not have enough active healthy yeast. I had a similar issue last year. I made a Dortunder that went from 1.052 to 1.012 which was perfectly fine. Then I took all that slurry and pitched it into a strong bock (1.060 and I could only get it down to 1.022 after 5 weeks in primary). I was hoping for at least 1.018.

What I would do, as mentioned above, is slowly raise the temp to the mid to upper 50's over a period of several days. This may help get the yeast started up again. You are likely out of the danger zone for generation of much esters as that happens early on in primary fermentation.

 

I had to chuckle about this one. The closest anyone came to recommending pitching more yeast was "I would check the gravity in a few days, and if not moving much, pitch a new starter slurry." I added the italics for emphasis, but I think hopfenunmalz was right on. Of course, it's your beer, so you should do what you want.

 

If it does not move down much more, send in fresh reinforcements.