Went down to the fridge to see what slurry I have and looked in the buckets again. There are some new little clusters of yeasty looking bubbles on the surface. 57F right now so i’ll let it ride overnight and have a look in the AM. I can always have a starter at high K by tomorrow evening if I need to.
I tasted the lager I racked off these cakes and it had a fairly yeasty aroma but not much on the tongue. It had been 19 days fermenting. Not as long as I usually let them sit but close.
This yeast was really fresh. I got it the day the LHBS did and I didn’t record the date for some reason but I think it was only about a week old. I made a 1L starter and it was slow to get going but fermented out pretty quick at 70ish. I stepped it up to 2L and really aerated the heck out of it and the second step took off in hours and practically blew out a 1 gal jug. I split the starter and pitched it to the 1.050ish lager at high K. It had a thin but solid layer of krauesen 10 hours later and fermented down to 1.011. Usually drops to .010 if I let it sit another week and I feel like it does so in the keg lagering anyway.
Only thing I can think of is the pilsner wort may not have been aerated all that well. I it usually splashes into the buckets as i pump it in. This time because it was so cold I pumped faster and I don’t think it was quite as foamy when filled but there was definitely some foam. Maybe I racked it off the cake too soon and left some active young yeast behind. I just hope I get some slurry to save from this to play with again.
