Brewed a American Light Lager style on Sunday with a OG of 1.042. Cooled to 52 and pitched to packets of 34/70 into 10 gallons. As of this morning, I’m still not seeing much activity. I know, RDWHAH. Just curious if this is normal. It’s the first time that I’ve used a dry lager least. I did just sprinkle both on top of the wort as I have with other dry ale yeasts (US-05 mainly).
Lager yeast is a bit slower to show signs of activity, everything happens slower at colder temps. With Lagers, you typically want to at least double your yeast pitch. I’m sure this will still be on its way to making beer, just something to keep in mind for better fermentation and finished results on future Lager batches.
What are you considering activity? Air Lock bubbles, lack of krausen? Can you see into your fermenter?
[my opinion]
A lot of people here disagree with me but…
You pitched ~23 grams. A mfr recommended pitch would have been ~40 grams. So, in my eyes you pitched ~57% of the recommended amount.
It will take off sooner or later but with an under pitch like that you should expect a long lag.
[/my opinion]
Good point. Took my eyes off of that when putting together the recipe. I should have know better than to just blindly pitch two packets.
I don’t have a ton of time before leaving for the weekend, but should I pick up another packet or two and pitch it now?
It’s not just your opinion it’s fact. The OP underpitched. You should have used 3 or 4 packs of lager yeast. A lager needs roughly 2Xs the amount of yeast as an ale.
Yes, pitch another couple of packs. It will be fine. But get it in there asap
Do not worry! I have a thread here somewhere in which my experience with a long lag time was noted. It was around 36-48 hours. The beer turned out great.
If you do some searching, W-34/70 is widely known for it’s slow start on initial pitching.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=34868.msg439173#msg439173
A lot of dry yeast is known for its slow start. But it’s still important to pitch enough yeast. Here is the guideline I use for dry yeast:
[quote]For dry yeast, ales and 5 gallon batches; for every .025 SG you will need approximately 5.5 grams of yeast. So for a 1.050 beer you will need 11 grams of yeast. For a 1.075 16.5 grams, for 1.100 you will need 22 grams of yeast, and so on. Double those amounts for lagers
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So how do you account for experience that differs from that? Just repeated luck?
With an initial gravity of 1.042, you are probably ok. I typically pitch 3 sachets of 34/70 or S-189 in my 10 gallon batches, but lately, I have been doing 5 gallon batches of 1.040 or lower lagers. They turn out fine with one sachet of dry lager yeast. A little bit slow to start, maybe, but I have done 10 gallons split into 2 5 gallon fermenters, with one being a re-pitch of freshly harvested slurry, and both finished about the same time - despite the lag on the dry pitch.
Just my 2 Lincolns here…YMMV, of course.
So how do you account for experience that differs from that? Just repeated luck?
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If your experience differs from that - great! But you also probably won’t be coming into a public forum saying that there’s a problem with an extended lag.
How did I miss everyone on the forum moving away from proper pitching rates?
The reason I began researching yrs ago and then pitching to the mfr recommendations was due to frustration over W34/70’s slow start and lethargic long fermentation. Robert said he ferments lagers in days vs weeks so it intrigued me. Once I began pitching to the mfr recommendations those problems disappeared.
If your experience differs from that - great! But you also probably won’t be coming into a public forum saying that there’s a problem with an extended lag.
How did I miss everyone on the forum moving away from proper pitching rates?
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In my case, “proper” is defined by what works.
I told you a lot disagree. [emoji23]
My experience has been diametrically opposed to others here. The mfr suggested pitch rate helped me tremendously.
Denny - totally agree. People have claimed for years that they pitched one 6 month old pack of liquid yeast in a barley wine and it “works” for them too. But when it doesn’t “work” and they come on the forum and ask for opinions the correct advice should be - pitch more yeast. Just sayin’.
BrewBama - I’m always going to do what works best for me and suggest that to others who ask advice. I believe that you can underpitch a good deal and still get fine beer. But your results will be more consistent if you follow some pitching rate guidelines.
In the situation you mention, I’d give the same advice as you. But whether that situation or another, I will, always quote my own experience, just as you and Brewbama do.
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In the thread I referenced, with the 48 hour lag time, 3 packs of 34/70 were pitched into 10 gallons of wort. Or 1.2 ounces of yeast.
Honestly I’m still not sure what that is! ??? 
I would simply say, that as you decrease OG, the factor for yeast pitch is also reduced, no? I so rarely brew much above 1.040 OG beers anymore, that I have found the need to pitch two or more sachets in 5 gallons lessened. I have and likely will pitch more than one sachet, occasionally, but I am not certain about the need to do that with my low ABV styles (Lichtbier, Czech Pale Lager - not premium- and ordinary bitters, to name a few). But slurry re-pitching with frequency has led me to not fret the slow start of the initial dry yeast pitch in these “little beers”.
The OP has a 1.042 OG beer and while more yeast than one sachet would shorten the lag, the lag itself isn’t giving me heartburn (kind of the neutron bomb analogy from Mark). And as I said above, your mileage may vary and I would extend that to say, your process may vary in order to meet your expectations - which is totally fair.