jlw said:

I know RDWDAHB. But it is my first lager. The current temp of the beer is 52* it doesn't seem to be doing anything. My ales usually show lots of activity by the 6 hour mark. This beer has been in the bucket with yeast since 8 pm last night.

Do lagers take a little longer? Do they not show as much activity?

I believe the answer is yes... To both. Yeast activity is proportional to environmental temperature. The colder it is the lower/slower the activity. The only difference between lager and ale yeasts is that the lager yeast can handle much colder temps, but they arent very active at those temps.

jlw said:

Lakewood said:

jlw said:

I know RDWDAHB. But it is my first lager. The current temp of the beer is 52* it doesn't seem to be doing anything. My ales usually show lots of activity by the 6 hour mark. This beer has been in the bucket with yeast since 8 pm last night.

Do lagers take a little longer? Do they not show as much activity?

I believe the answer is yes... To both. Yeast activity is proportional to environmental temperature. The colder it is the lower/slower the activity. The only difference between lager and ale yeasts is that the lager yeast can handle much colder temps, but they arent very active at those temps.

So yes to relax and yes they take a little longer and yes they show a little less activity. Hey that's three yes's.

For what its worth I just went and pressed on the lid and I do get movement in the airlock when I do that so i think there is something going on in there

It'll be bubblin tonight

we need someone to show up and tell us all that airlock activity tells you nothing about fermentation progress and that taking samples and checking gravity reading is the only useful method for determining fermentation.....

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

we need someone to show up and tell us all that airlock activity tells you nothing about fermentation progress and that taking samples and checking gravity reading is the only useful method for determining fermentation.....

well it's kind of true, I wouldn't go as far as that, but looking at an air lock for 30sec may tell you that a storm is coming wile your yeast is dead.
(that last post was in html sarcastic text... that code doesn't do anything, but it's there if you quote it)

that's freaking hilarious that you actually put a sarcastic tag on it.... i wish that did something... i should program the site to do something with that tag.

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

Dr_Jerryrigger said:

Lakewood said:

we need someone to show up and tell us all that airlock activity tells you nothing about fermentation progress and that taking samples and checking gravity reading is the only useful method for determining fermentation.....

well it's kind of true, I wouldn't go as far as that, but looking at an air lock for 30sec may tell you that a storm is coming wile your yeast is dead.
(that last post was in html sarcastic text... that code doesn't do anything, but it's there if you quote it)

that's freaking hilarious that you actually put a sarcastic tag on it.... i wish that did something... i should program the site to do something with that tag.

maybe it can just subtract some Karma from the person using it.

too complicated.

ales usually start in 18 hours, lagers generally take 1-3 days for activity to show.

lagers drive me crazy because of this, but one time i thought the lager yeast had died because on day three nothing was happening. so i pitched some ale yeast. both ending up erupting at once.

note to self.....mixing ale and lager yeast is pretty cool. made a great beer. really need to give the lager a day or two headstart, dont' pitch at same time.

then ferment around 60 degrees for the whole time.