Hello,
I’m planning on brewing my first lager soon & need some clarity on the whole process. I guess my first question is concerning the starter. The batch is a Czech Pils that calls for alot of yeast. I have a 2 liter flask, so i thought i’d combine 7 cups water with 1 cup DME for wort. After cooling & pitching 1 vial of yeast, set on the stirplate for a couple days, cold crash overnight, then decant before brewing. Is that sufficient or should i repeat that process with the yeast cake? An article in BYO says the yeast should be about double the amount for an ale. Does this sound about right, or is that a waste of time? I’d love to know how you guys do your lager starters. Thanks!
Check out http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html . According to the recommendations you need 368million yeast cells for a 1.050 lager. A 3 liter starter with stirplate is recommended.
Its pretty hard to grow enough yeast for a lager. Typically, I make a 1 gallon starter (I don’t have a stirplate) for anything up to 1.050 or so (which isn’t quite enough but I don’t sweat it) and if I’m making something bigger than that, I brew a low gravity beer first and then reuse the cake.
If you make a 2 liter starter with stir plate, I bet you get the job done.
If you only have a 2L flask, I’d recommend pitching the whole thing at high krausen. You may need to adjust your recipe to account for the extra volume.
http://www.yeastcalc.com/
I actually like this calculator for larger starters or more importantly for stepping up starters because it does it for you unlike mr malty. Check with that. I built a stepped up starter from their for my last lager using czech pilsner.
If you do plan on cold crashing I would recommend at least 24 hours. 48 would even be more ideal.
Thanks so much for the great info. Those links are excellent! Thanks to you guys, i have a better grip on the starter. Another question is about the ferment. If i pitch at about 55 degrees, i want to hold it at that temp. until primary is done, correct? Is a d-rest important at that point? The kit instructions don’t mention that. Go figure! I believe after that i should slowly lower temp to the mid 30’s over a few week period. Is that right? I have a chest freezer with temp controller so that shouldn’t be a problem. Please let me know where i’m going wrong! I appreciate your time. :mrgreen:
