So my journey into lagers began yesterday with the brewing of a Dunkle. I’ve read on these and other forums that pitch rates need to be twice as high as for Ales, so to bypass making a yeast starter I pitched 2 (very bloated) smack packs of Wyeast 2206 around 52-55 degrees F. Primary has been in my fridge now for just about 18 hrs and no signs of bubbling yet from the air lock. Current fermometer reading is ~50 degrees F with my fridge temp holding between 45-47 degrees F
I use a bucket so can’t look for activity, but being used to brewing ales which fire up for me after as little as 8-12 hrs, I wanted to know when I should start to worry if I don’t see bubbling? Moreover, if I don’t see bubbling by the suggested time, what are “best practices” to breath life into the primary to get things rolling.
[quote=“Bold44”]So my journey into lagers began yesterday with the brewing of a Dunkle. I’ve read on these and other forums that pitch rates need to be twice as high as for Ales, so to bypass making a yeast starter I pitched 2 (very bloated) smack packs of Wyeast 2206 around 52-55 degrees F. Primary has been in my fridge now for just about 18 hrs and no signs of bubbling yet from the air lock. Current fermometer reading is ~50 degrees F with my fridge temp holding between 45-47 degrees F
I use a bucket so can’t look for activity, but being used to brewing ales which fire up for me after as little as 8-12 hrs, I wanted to know when I should start to worry if I don’t see bubbling? Moreover, if I don’t see bubbling by the suggested time, what are “best practices” to breath life into the primary to get things rolling.
Thanks in advance for your comments and feedback![/quote]
What was your OG? What was the date on the yeast packs?
Still quite likely you under pitched so the yeast is reproducing before it gets started. I’d give it 36-48 hours. It will get going.
Thanks so the kit said the O.G should be around 1.055 but when I took my measurement (wort temp being ~57 degrees) I got a reading of around 1.064. I am still learning about calculating pitch rates and pretty much just normally use single packs of rehydrated dry yeast for my ales so I figured getting about 200 billion yeast into the ~5 gallon wort would be sufficient. Still think I under pitched if so by how much? If I indeed under-pitched, think I’ll suffer from off-flavors?
I’d like to brew more lagers in the future, so I’m chalking this batch up as a pure tester. I have a 2L flask to do starters but no stir plate (nor do I have a place to ensure a warm ~70+ degree area to grow the starter).
[quote=“Bold44”]Thanks so the kit said the O.G should be around 1.055 but when I took my measurement (wort temp being ~57 degrees) I got a reading of around 1.064. I am still learning about calculating pitch rates and pretty much just normally use single packs of rehydrated dry yeast for my ales so I figured getting about 200 billion yeast into the ~5 gallon wort would be sufficient. Still think I under pitched if so by how much? If I indeed under-pitched, think I’ll suffer from off-flavors?
I’d like to brew more lagers in the future, so I’m chalking this batch up as a pure tester. I have a 2L flask to do starters but no stir plate (nor do I have a place to ensure a warm ~70+ degree area to grow the starter).[/quote]
At 1.064 you would need more like 245 billion cells. The reason I asked about the date on the yeast is to determine viability, how many cells you really have. Depending on the age of the yeast you likely have less than 100 b cells per pack.
To best determine your pitching rate use something like the calculator at brewer’s friend
With lagers I always try to over pitch. It gives the yeast an advantage at the colder temps and helps assure the extra effort and time we put into the lager isn’t wasted.
If it doesn’t start up in 72 hours you could pitch a couple packs of dry yeast like 34/70. I bet you’ll see some activity before that though.
Ok, thanks next time around I’ll take advantage of that calculator. Oh MF date of the yeast were Jan 2015 and were kept in fridge up until the pack was smacked.
I think you’re going to be alright. My personal rule of thumb is to look for activity and pitch more yeast if there’s none after about 36 hours. The dry W-34/70 yeast would be perfect for this – if no activity after 36 hours or more then add two packs of that and everything will turn out great.
Thanks fellas for the great info and support! Since it does look like I may have under pitched by as much as 25%, how much of a risk of off flavors might I be setting myself up for? I probably don’t have a refined palette yet but figured it was worth asking here.
I’ll update the post in a day or two in regards to the progress of this brew. In the interim… cheers!
Acetaldehyde (green apple), diacetyl (popcorn butter), and contamination (could be anything) are all possible from underpitching. But as long as you can get fermentation going within 36-48 hours, you’ll be just fine. No need to worry too much yet.
Ok thanks! With that all said, I’m happy to report that just over 24hrs from when I pitched, I have some nice active fermentation going with a wort temp of 48-50 degrees!
I’m guessing this will put this thread to a close but again thanks to both of you for your input! Looking forward to doing this again and pitching a little more yeast
Wanted to provide an update on my first lager with a question about doing the diacetyl rest:
So the primary has been going since my last post (about 12 days) at a temp of ~48-50 degrees. I’ve been reading some other boards and many are staying that I should perform the rest before the primary fermentation reaches completion.
My O.G for this batch was 1.064. I took a reading this morning and after adjusting for the wort temp, the current gravity is 1.026. I used the Wyeast 2206 as shown in the title of the post and it looks like the avg attenuation is around 75% based on the NB website, so my calculated F.G should be around 1.016.
I’m still getting some bubbling in the fermenter (maybe 8-10 per minute via a 3 piece airlock) but based on when people stay to do the rest (75-80% of what the final gravity should be), my math is telling me I’m in the ball park of what the gravity should be to perform the rest but having only done ales, it seems weird to me to be raising the temp prior to cessation of bubbling in the primary.
A good 3 day rest around 60-65 degrees really appropriate now or should I let the fermenter go another few days before moving it up to rest temp?
