Lager Fermentation Question

Yeast & Fermentation
1

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I am making my first lager (a Sam Adams Boston Lager clone). It has been in the primary for 2 weeks today. There is still about 1 inch of krausen on top and it has seemed to remain at about the same level for a week or so. Should I wait for that to fall back into the beer before raising the temp to 62 degrees for the diactyl rest or should I just raise it now and transfer the beer to the secondary in a couple of days before dropping the temps down? I used WLP820 for the yeast. Picture is attached.

Crypto

2

You have a lager in active fermentation. Give it 3-4 weeks min. You might gently rock the carboy to see if the krausen breaks up

3

take a gravity reading if your fermentaion is 3/4 done start to raise the temp for your d-rest.

4

WLP820 is a slow fermenter. You need to give it more time than what is typical. Definitely do NOT rack the beer. It needs all the yeast in there to keep on going. You should probably swirl the yeast periodically to get it back into suspension so it will ferment better. I agree with others that warming the beer a bit when fermentation is about 2/3 to 3/4 complete will be a good idea with this beer. Do not cold crash it until it is 100% done fermenting, after the krausen has fallen and the yeast begins to settle out.

FYI – WLP820 is a crap yeast that should not be sold. It will work, but every other lager yeast on the market today is 50 times better than it. So it should not be sold. My not so humble opinion.

5

[quote=“dmtaylo2”]WLP820 is a slow fermenter. You need to give it more time than what is typical. Definitely do NOT rack the beer. It needs all the yeast in there to keep on going. You should probably swirl the yeast periodically to get it back into suspension so it will ferment better. I agree with others that warming the beer a bit when fermentation is about 2/3 to 3/4 complete will be a good idea with this beer. Do not cold crash it until it is 100% done fermenting, after the krausen has fallen and the yeast begins to settle out.

FYI – WLP820 is a crap yeast that should not be sold. It will work, but every other lager yeast on the market today is 50 times better than it. So it should not be sold. My not so humble opinion.[/quote]

So, don’t buy WLP820? :lol:
Any that you REALLY like? I used 34/70 in my last lager and it turned out great.

6

I’m still learning about lagers, but so far I have had great results with Wyeast 2206 and White Labs WLP830. I did not care for the Wyeast 2308. There are a dozen other lager yeasts that I’ve never tried yet, but eventually will.

7

Thanks for the advice. I’ll do a gravity reading and see where I stand.