Lager problems

[Brownie83]

Right i've had a coopers european lager in the fv for 12 days now, it has been stuck at 1015 so tonight when i took a reading and it was still the same i decided to give it a good stir up to "wake up" the yeasties again with a view to using some finings to clear it before bottling if it goes to 1000 before it has had time to settle again.

Now i'm a bit worried that i might have done wrong and undone all the good work.

What say you all??? will it be ok?

 

[rickthebrew]

1015 is very high for that kit - it should finish around 1006 so a good stir should hopefully give the yeast a kickstart and hopefully fiish the job off :thumb: Don`t worry about it looking cloudy when you bottle it the yeast will drop out and in my experience most coopers kits drop bright :thumb: :thumb:

good luck :drink:

 

[Brownie83]

i thought it was high, and from what i have read i thought that it should be about done now - hence the stir to kick it into life.

how much longer would you expect it take to get it down to the required from now?

thanks for advice!!

 

[rickthebrew]

It should really be done - before i went to AG i brewed about six coopers kits ( lager, mexican lager and bitter) they all took around 6 - 7 days to get to around 1006 then i bottled. I`ve never heard of problems with stuck ferments with coopers kits so it may be worth checking your hydrometer in tap water - it should read 1000, if it does and after a couple days maximum the reading in the brew hasn`t dropped (hopefully it will) then you could add some yeast nutrient or more yeast, hopefully a good stir will sort the problem though :

 

[Brownie83]

Not so much problems now but seeking a bit of advice.

The Coopers brewed out lowely in the end, added some finings and it cleared lovely before transfering to a barrel at the weekend.

it is in the old brick out house which is around 18 degrees - is this too warm after the first week of secondary fermentation? I've read that lager needs to be conditioned at a lower temperature? should i be putting it into a fridge that is set at around 8 degrees??

What say you all???

 

[rickthebrew]

You`re correct in saying that lager should be cold conditionded after the initial secondary ferment in the bottle :thumb: However most if not all lager kits use normal brewing yeast for fermentation - real lager yeast should be fermented at a lower temp then ales etc, as it would be difficult to ferment at a lower temp without say a converted fridge or something with a heat control or thermostat the kit makers just chuck in a normal yeast Lower fermentation temps and cold conditioning (lagering) gives that crisp and clean taste of lager. It wouldn`t hurt to store your brew at a lower temp and it may help it taste more like lager - i found leaving it for at least five weeks improved the taste no end :thumb:

If you stick with kits you could do a lager kit with some real lager yeast in the cooler winter months - this may have a better result? Hope your brew turns out good though :drink:

 

[Brownie83]

I'm hoping to make the step up to making my own brews from scratch at some point but for the time being i'm sticking with the kits - i've done a bitter and am really pleased with the results given some of the horror stories on here. so maybe next year i'll give the real stuff a whirl.

thanks for the advice, i think i will pop it into the fridge that i have adapted (not perfectly temp controlled but it'll do for this attempt :grin:

 

[rickthebrew]

sounds good to me :thumb: when your ready to go over to AG brewing this site is excellent - i only did my first AG last october and i`m planning my 20th at the moment