help with first lager

[raef]

hi, i'm quite new here, and was hoping for some imput. i have a stout lagering on wlp830 at 55 degrees. pitched 4 pints to wort, started at 1.082, final should be somewhere between 1.018-1.024. today was my first gravity reading. it is sitting at 1.038 at the moment, and has been fermenting 11 days. it is showing very little action as of today. what would be the next step? continue taking gravities until i know it's going no further? also, will it continue after i rack to secondary and lager at 45 degrees for 6 more weeks? how low do you think it will get? do i need to bring it up to 60 degrees and let it rest before dropping to 45 degrees??????????????

[BDawg]

lagers take a lot longer than ales.

Give it a couple more weeks then recheck the gravity.
At that point, it should be ready for a diacetyl rest (raise to 60F or higher for a couple days then slowly lower back down 2 degrees a day until you get to about 33F and lager there for a couple months.).

HTH-

[raef]

thanks as always. just to add, when i say little action, i mean bubbling eight nine times a minute and getting less and less. any need to worry? and when you say 60 or higher, how much higher? also i just read on white labs site that they recommend servo in every wort. I'd like to get your thoughts on that....thanks AGAIN

[ajdelange]

You are doing a stout with lager yeast? In any event it is normal for gas evolution to slow as attenuation increases. You are now at 54% and it's hard to say whether there is a problem or not. If you had taken samples every day or so you could plot those and get an idea what the assymptote is likely to be from that curve but as you didn't do that you will either have to just wait and see or pull a couple hundred mL, put them in a flask, bottle or jar, put that in a warm place and check the gravity of that after a few days. The terminal gravity of that sample will be a fraction of a °P below the value the beer will finally attain. Lager yeasts perform at cold temperature. Things take time. You would hope to be a little further along than you are (primary fermentation generally completes in 10 day) but I don't think you need to worry yet.

As for Servomyces - of course they recommend it for every brew. You would too if you were selling it. This isn't to say that it might not be of benefit but if a wort contains enough FAN (which a properly mashed one should) then you should be able to get a healthy fement without supplements. The Zinc contained in the various nutrients may be of benefit. The thing to do IMO is try the nutrient in a few brews, see if there is benefit and make you decison whether to continue use based on that.

[raef]

it is the recipe heart of the tide imperial porter from charlie papazian's book, although i plan to lager on cinnamon, nibs and peppers. thanks for the imput, i pitched what i found on white labs site. what size do you suggest for future lager brews?