Too Small a Starter or RDWAHAHB?

Ingredients
1

Made a starter last Saturday morning for my Czech Pils.  I used the last of my DME-6.5oz in ~.6 gallons for ~1.030OG.  Saturday afternoon we lost power so stir plate went down.  I swirled it every hour or so, but did not see any activity.  It went down to 58F in my house until late Sunday evening.  The stir plate fired back up and I let it go until Tuesday at 68F.  It smelled great, but no krausen and not a lot of foam.  Decanted and pitched last night at 52F.

No activity this morning.  Was it too small a pitch to take off quickly?  Do you think I did not let it go long enough on the stir plate?  It’s too early for a homebrew so need some thoughts.  Thanks!

Dave

2

I grow my lager starters at 68F. You don’t need to grow them at lager temps as you’re only making more yeast at this stage of the game. Let it slowly warm up to about 68F and ferment out for a day or so then crash cool and decant the spent wort prior to pitching.

3

Bluesman, I pitched it last night.  No activity today…bummed.

4

It typically takes 24 - 48 hrs at 68F for the starter (1.030) to ferment out on a stir plate.

5

I have never had to let a starter plate go over 24 hours.

6

So no one else seems to be saying it so I will.

relax. Maybe it was a too small a starter, maybe not, but likely it will be fine. I have not done any lagers yet but from what I have read;

a) 24 hours lag is not unusual
b) they are pretty quite about their activity and you might not really notice much with out gravity readings.

I have also read that if you are really worried you could pitch a packet of dry yeast.

7

You probably did under-pitch, though not by a whole lot. With a brand-new pack, the MrMalty calculator puts it at 250-300 billion cells total.

A 24-48 hour lag is normal for most lagers anyway, IME.

8

I figured as much, but did not check the date, or Mr. Malty.  Should have done that.  I’m a bit lazy today after finishing off my Pale Ale during the brew last night… ::slight_smile:

I’ve had lagers percolating huge the next morn, but with a monster pitch.  I’m trying to RDWAHAHB but it’s hard!