Can i rack my lager yet? A bit confused!

[Gethin79]

I am coming to the end of my first ever primary fermentation of my Coopers European Lager Kit. I have done a couple of hydrometer readings over a two day period, and it has remained the same at 1.010. It started at 1.040.

I have been fermenting for 16 days now, the majority of which time was at around 13C. Yesterday I set the temp to 18C for hopefully the last couple of days.

This evening I did a hydrometer test, and although the reading has remained the same, I can still see small bubbles rising in the fv. Should I leave this for longer despite the stable readings?

I was hoping to soon transfer into a secondary and put in the fridge for 3 weeks before bottling.

All advice gratefully received! :

 

[tippseyTony]

Sounds like your doing fine , i bottled after three weeks ready in a month ,1010 is fine to bottle after three test's , i used the carb drops to prime ,enjoy your European i did.

 

[Gethin79]

Thanks! This is the nerve racking bit, after making sure everything is right and being patient, the last thing I want to do is muck it up near the end!!

Can't wait to try it, had a taste of the sample and its not that bad! Definitely not ready to drink, but not bad :drink:

 

[pittsy]

I would transfer it now then leave it at 18c for 2 days more, this will help the yeast clean up any off flavours too and hopefully get some co2 on top of the brew . :thumb:

 

[Gethin79]

That sounds like a good plan to me. Thanks for that. :thumb:

 

[Gethin79]

...I have read that some people add a small amount of sugar to the brew before storing in the fridge for a few weeks. This in addition to the priming sugar at bottling time.

Is there any benefit to doing this?

 

[pittsy]

Not heard that before , in an ideal world you would use something like a corni keg and just give it a bit of gas (co2), vent the corni (getting rid of any oxygen ) and a little co2 again , just a drop then cold store . After cold storage transfer to a fresh keg leaving behind sediment . :whistle:

 

[Gethin79]

Thanks for the reply. :

Have been doing a bit more reading and it seems, as you say, that adding sugar isn't the done thing at that point. The only benefit I could see to it is that it would make sure there is a layer of CO2 over the brew throughout the lagering process, but hopefully once I get it into the secondary tomorrow, there'll still be just enough to do this.

This lagering business is a bit involved!! Looking forward to starting my wherry, which seems a bit more straight forward!!!

 

[Gethin79]

Right...brew has been racked into secondary and now back in fermentation fridge at 18C. Will start reducing the temp tomorrow.

It's funny how even the things I thought were going to be simple can be a pain! Like realising once I'd siphoned most of the beer out of the fv that the last bit was going to suck in air and bubble into the secondary...too late to stop that this time. Will figure out a better method next time!!

All I can do now is hope all is ok. SG reading has been 1.010 for 4 days now, so it's definitely finished now. Couldn't figure out if it smelled strange or not, or if it was the old yeast chucking up making it smell strange! Still...time will tell eh!!! Not going to disturb it now for 3/4 weeks.

Thanks to everyone for your advice so far! :