Definition of life

[cwrw]

What do you rate as being worth being patient with - one bubble every 6 minutes from a lager primary on the fifth day (whilst only dropping .20 gravity points). Is this a sign of impending but slowly evolving life of a bohemian lager, or is it a sign to order some more yeast and re-pitch to get my remaining 15-20 points?? :wha: :wha:

Re-trying another brew with a cultivation of this brew yeast. Starter made to 4litres, and pitched at 30c this time going down to 22c and staying there for a time - aiming for 12 hours, and then lowering to 11c. So far and 9 hours into activity, moderate bubbler animation, so going for another few hours before dropping - hopefully all this will avoid a repeat of my previous veerrry slow ferment!

 

[cwrw]

Continuing the saga:
Decided to re-animate the first brew with some alternative lager yeast, as there were no signs of life, so after 6 hours there was a very good sign of yeast activity which continued at a slower pace until full stop after 12 hours. I thought it might be that this second yeast had eaten through the 1.030 reading to my target of around 1.012 (and finishing the original yeast's job). I checked the hydrometer and low-behold the reading was still 1.030. Does this mean that there is a greater density of unfermentables in this brew, as I cannot conclude anything otherwise at this stage, since the hydrometer was en-sinc with the brix reading taken at the beginning? :wha: :wha: . Nothing special in the ingredients for a run of the mill germman pilsner type, but temperatures of mash might have fluctuated more than I thought. ANY TAKERS?

 

[PD]

1030 means that there is still far too much unused sugars in the brew, for some reason your yeasts are not eating it. Check your temps and give it a little stir leave a day.

 

[cwrw]

Thanks, I'll give it a try, but it seems that it's rather strange what's happening, as it does not make sense at the moment, as there was a vigourous activity last night, yet no decrease in gravity.

 

[BigYin]

I suspect the activity was the new yeast eating up the remainder of the sugars in the starter :hmm:

 

[cwrw]

I suspect the activity was the new yeast eating up the remainder of the sugars in the starter :hmm:

My fault for the confusion , this batch has been re-seeded with a fresh pack of dry yeast, placed in neat. By the way, by now activity has re-commenced slowly, with temperatures still relatively high at 18c to keep the initial activity rolling.