Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow?
Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow?
In the past, I only ever did top fermenting styles. I had to depressurise my bottles sometimes even more than once (using swing top bottles, luckily, this is not too awful). Now I made a Vienna Lager and even though I can‘t even really cold crash the bottles (I have them sit outside at maybe 10°C instead due to a lack in fridge space), my secondary fermentation is way slower than I’m used to. Is that to be expected?
With ales, I opened the bottles the day after starting secondary, and it sometimes was a deafening bang already. Now, I waited maybe even two days and haven‘t got more than a shy little pop.
I used powdered sugar (mixed with sterile water 1:1) to feed the yeast in secondary fermentation because I didn‘t have anything else in the house when I found the time to bottle. Is that maybe an issue?
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how much sugar ended up per bottle? my book says 6.5g/l for a light lager during secondary. also what are your temps?
That’s about it, 6 g/l. I ferment in my garage and the highest it went in primary was close to 20 degrees, just before it was done (nice coincidence that it did a diacetyl rest that way). When bottling last Tuesday, it was more like 10, and it’s somewhere in that ballpark since then, warming up slightly the last few days.
my guess then it just needs more time.
as another commenter said it, likely around two weeks, perhaps 3?checked my book: it says 4 weeks at 3°C, so maybe 1-2 weeks at 10 degrees. I'd just open a bottle after like 10 days to see where it's at.
That's valuable information. Thanks!
do you have an update on how secondary is coming along?