WLP840: slurry slow to wake up?

[stormybrew]

I’ve had approx 1.5L (in 3 jars) of slurry in the fridge for the past 4 months (harvested 7.29). I was planning to brew another mex lager this week. Monday night I began the process of waking it up. I added each jar of slurry (0.5L) to approximately 0.67L of starter wort but have had almost no activity. I give each bottle a gentle stir to keep the yeasties in suspension and they’re on the shelf at approx 70F and I added yeast nutrient to the wort before mixing the slurry with the starter wort. One of the three foams with the stir, so I’m sure those guys are alive. One not so much. One about half as much as the active one.

So, any idea as to how much I actually have that are viable? Should I step each up to a larger volume of starter wort…say maybe 1.5L?

any insight or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

[mvsawyer]

Hiya Bob,
Nice to see you back!
Did you add the full 0.5L of beer to the starter? I just did this not too long ago with a yeast harvested in July, also a lager yeast. I poured off as much beer from on top of the yeast as possible and made up a 1.5L starter (1.040) for them. I’m thinking by adding 0.5L of beer to 0.67L of starter you ended up with just over a liter of “half-strength” starter.
What’s the gravity of your mexi lager? Maybe we can crunch some numbers.

[stormybrew]

Hey Michael,

the total volume of each of the 3 starters is approx 1.2L, with about 0.5 being slurry in each. I did pour off the old beer that was on top of the slurry and used the new stater wort to mix up the slurry and get it all out of the jars and into the starter vessel.

I think I let them go for another 24hours, decant, and step up the slurry into a one liter starter each.

b.

[mvsawyer]

You’ll have plenty of yeast then! Good luck on your lager