Lager with Pilsner enzyme not fermenting - help!

[dannymaguire]

Hi All - I'm new to the forum and looking for some help. I currently have a lager on. It has Pilsner Enzyme in it and it the first lager I've done. It's actually only the second brew I've done, the first being a two tin Milestone IPA, which I'm very happily drinking right now ;-). During the first 24 hours of fermentation of the IPA I had a lovely head of bubbles on the surface on the beer. This time with the lager there is just a very small amount of bubbles spread out on the surface, as if fermentation has stopped or not started. It's a two tin again so i've added to extra sugar. I added the yeast by mixing it with the Pilsner enzyme and some luke-warm water and stir it gently into the wort mix. The mix still smells very wort like and doesn't seem to have moved anywhere. What should I do now? I pitched the yeast yesterday at 4pm, the temp was a bit high about 28.6 degreesC (School boy error and assumed it had cooled sufficiently without checking it!), and it's cooled nicely to 18.6 degreesC. On the info I've read so far I don't think I've killed the yeast but it is a lager yeast so not great with higher temps. I was wondering; a)what to do now and b) could the enzyme be having a different effect on the fermentation process?

Sorry for long intro - thanks in advance.
Danny :thumb:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Hi Danny and welcome to the forum :

Firstly do you have a hydrometer and have you taken any readings with it ?
Secondly 27 hours is not a lot of time to give the yeast to work If it is a quality kit it may well have been supplied with a lager yeast which doesn't produce as showy a head as ale yeast unless you pitch a lot more of it
Give it another 24 hours and see what is happening then :thumb:

 

[Aleman]

Any particular reason you used pilsner enzyme . . . Which I hate the name of . . . its really amylogucosidase and all it does is chew up short chain starch fragments producing glucose which the yeast uses up . . . thing is it continues to do it starting on the longer chain dextrins . . . and you end up with a beer that is thin in body and if bottles . . . over carbonated . . . and at worst a glass hand grenade!

Pilsners brewed properly do not use additional enzymes, and have a dry finish from mashed and fermented properly.

 

[dannymaguire]

Thanks for the quick response. The gravity is 1035. It is a lager yeast so I will leave it another day or two before I panic(?) - should I get some more yeast just in case?

 

[dannymaguire]

I just used what was in the kit. It said the pilsner enzyme "enhance the true characteristics" (?) on the box. Supposed to be a "true European lager".

 

[tubby_shaw]

If the gravity is 1.035 now it will have been higher at the start so it's fermenting :thumb:
Just check the gravity again tomorrow, it should have dropped a few more points to indicate that it is still fermenting :pray:
Once you have confirmed it's fermenting leave it alone for a week before you continue to the next step in your instructions :thumb:

Buy the spare yeast anyway, it always pays to have a spare yeast :thumb:

 

[dannymaguire]

Panic over!

Lovely head of foam today, smells great already, had to stop myself from sticking my head in!

Thanks for all your advise, looks like you were right. Patience is not something I'm noted for having!

Phew!