Hey all,

I recently created a wort for a Vienna Lager. I had a Wyeast Munich Lager Yeast slap pack, which I let sit out at room temperature while I was brewing. Once I was done with the boil, I cooled the wort as usual to room temperature, pitched the yeast (which had been sitting at room tempurature for about 3 hours, and then moved my primary to my basement, which was at 46 degrees. I realized that the temperature was a bit too low for a lager, so I moved it into our storage area, off of the cold cement floor, which helped to raise the temperature to 48 degrees, which is within the range of a lager primary fermentation temperature. To date, I have had no activity with the yeast, and have tried to oxygenate several times by stirring the wort. I'm wondering if I might need to re-pitch some yeast. Any thoughts?

Ok, went downstairs tonight and I have some krausening, so it looks like I'm good to go I guess lagers just take a little more patience than ales.

Right on! Lager yeast usually takes a bit longer to get started, and to finish. It's due to having such cold fermentation temperatures, I'm sure. Glad to hear your brew is doing well!

Agreed. Lagers take their good ol' sweet time when getting to work. I also tend to be more motivated and active when ambient temps are in the 65-75 degree range. Glad to hear that your yeast finally got their act together!

Lager yeast is used to ferment beer at cold temperatures and it's actually the secret behind the lager beer which was discovered by Germans where in fact, this yeast is found to be originated from Argentina. For ages, scientists have been attempting to determine where lager yeast originated from prior to being used by Germany during the Sixteenth century to brew lager-style beers. The beer with German roots uses a yeast that comes from Argentina. I actually found it here: Origins of lager yeast traced to Argentina.