Brewing Tomorrow Night - What to Do About Yeast Starter

Ingredients
1

I’m feeling conflicted about my yeast starter approach for tomorrow night, so I’d like to crowd-source an answer and see what comments I get. Basically I’m brewing a 5.5G batch of Marzen tomorrow night with WLP833 and need to get some yeast ready.

My plan is to do a SnS starter and pitch the whole thing at high krausen. Since I’m brewing a lager, I’m planning to do the starter tonight or first thing tomorrow and leave it in the ferm chamber at ~50F for 12-24 hours. That way I don’t temp shock the yeast when I pitch them into 48F wort late tomorrow night.

I have two choices for yeast:

  1. 500mL of WLP833 slurry from a Dortmunder (brewed 4/17, harvested 5/4, ~30 days old)
  2. 3 vials of WLP833 that I already received from my LHBS (cheap since they expired on May 20)

The slurry performed well and has been stored ~38F. However, my GFCI tripped earlier this week so the chest freezer that the yeast was in warmed to ~68F over a period of ~12 hours. Once I discovered the issue I slowly decreased the temp back to ~38 over ~12 hours (to prevent shocking the yeast and/or breaking any glass bottles in contact with the walls of the freezer).

The vials were stored at the LHBS the whole time so I expect they’ve maintained proper temps.

Seems like either would work fine, but why make a decision and second-guess myself when there’s such a great resource at my fingertips  :wink:

Which yeast should I use for my WLP833 starter going into a 5.5G batch of Marzen tomorrow night?
  • Use 500mL of 30-day old slurry that warmed up to 70F for 24 hours
  • Use 3 vials that are “barely expired”
  • Throw the vials in with the slurry and put in all in the starter
0 voters
2

I’d get that starter going now if you’re going to sit it at lager temps instead of room temp.  I have no experience pitching multiple vials in a starter or reusing slurry in a starter, but either yeast source sounds like it should work fine.

3

I do 3 gallon batches so, take that into context when reading my next comment.

My last 3 batches I have taken 1 liter of wort (from the batch) and done a shaken not stirred starter with that 1 liter. The remainder of the wort sits in my fermentation chamber overnight. I pitch at high krausen in the morning. I’ve done this with 2 lagers (wlp838) and an American Wheat. No ill effects.

4

I would probably pitch the slurry into a starter and get that going. The other 3 vials will have a much lower cell count since they are past expired.

5

I voted for the slurry simply because I wouldn’t have any confidence in the expired vials building up to a reasonable cell count by tomorrow (today?). 500 mL of normal slurry should be plenty of yeast even if the viability is a bit off.

FWIW, I just repitched some W206 (allegedly the same strain) that was 35 days old. The lag period was disconcertingly long (48-60 hr) but it’s now five days later and nearly at FG. I did over pitch a little (1.8 M/mL-°P) to compensate.

6

Thanks. I’m kinda leaning the same direction. The brewing gods smiled on me and my wife’s travel schedule changed, so I get to brew tomorrow night (Thursday) instead.

I’ll make the starter early this evening and it will have a full 24 hours to do its thing. I use an O2 wand, so I can hit it with oxygen up-front and then once more a couple hours later. I’ll also use plenty of nutrient in the starter.

7

I’m getting to the point where I think, on Homebrew scale, that proper sanitation (uninfected wort) - well oxygenated wort - and proper temp control are much more important than cell count or starter method. Obviously assuming your yeast isn’t dead…

8

They look happy enough, don’t you think? No visible dark spots, but certainly more beige and less white than they were a few weeks ago:

9

I see one of them waving.  Those yeast are ready to make beer.

10

I would pitch that and not think twice about it.

11

Perhaps so.  But long lag times freak me out.  48 - 60 hrs would have me repitching with a pack of dry yeast.

12

Not having an LHBS makes you a much more casual brewer.

13

I keep an emergency stash of dry yeasts.  Lager, ale, wheat, saison.  Just in case.  Maybe I have issues?

14

I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. :wink:

I do counts on my homebrew pitches, so it’s just a different issue.

15

Thanks all for the comments! I made a 1.5L solution with 135g of DME, so about 1.035. Foamed it up good with O2 around 11pm last night and tossed it into the ferm
chamber at 50F chamber temp.

8 hours later there’s about 1/4" of krausen on top, so it looks like we have lift off.

Hopefully at ~24 hours when I pitch this they will be acclimated and ripping along.

16

I would be very surprised if you encounter any problems at all.  That stuff looks primed for action.

17

I took a sample tonight and it’s at 1.013 (targeted FG was 1.014; I undershot my OG by 1 point so current ADF is 76%). The sample was too yeasty to really get a great idea of taste, but certainly no issues with the yeast doing its job. I did overpitch a bit, but if a summer Octoberfest is a little dry that’s not the worst thing. It doesn’t get cool in Central Texas until December :slight_smile: