First Lager advice

[SJW]

I'm doing a Boh Pils tonight. I plan on step mashing and am using 34/70 yeast x 2 packs. I rehydrate in 240mls of 22 deg C water and leave for 30 mins, then turn on the stir plate for an hour or so. By then the wort is in the fridge an while it's getting down to 12 deg C, I'll add a little wort (very little) to the yeast cream and cool it to 12 deg also, then pitch when the FV is at 12 deg C.

 

[manticle]

So would you make a starter at around 18C and then chill down to your pitching temperature? Or make the starter at the temperature you are planning on pitching at?

I make identical wort starters and pitch at active so cold pitch the starter too. I add yeast and starter wort, 4-6 litres from a fresh smack pack so if stepping up or using dme and just pitching yeast, approach would be different.

 

[contrarian]

Thanks for all the tips!

I brewed this yesterday base on the pilsner recipe at te start of the thread but subbed Munich for Vienna. Made 2 15L cubes and 2x2L bottles for starters.

Need to free up some fermenter space but will hopefully get this on over the coming week and will see how it goes from there.

Plan is to make a 2L starter and pitch active, hopefully it does the trick!

 

[manticle]

I reckon at least twice that starter size or look at drauflassen. Especially if cold pitching - you really need lots of healthy yeast and it really does make a noticeable difference.
Bit of extra effort now saves frustration and buggerising around later.

Since you have 2 cubes, drauflassen should be easy enough.

 

[manticle]

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Drauflassen

 

[contrarian]

I should clarify that I was planning on making a 2L starter for a 15L ferment rather than the total volume produced.

With my current equipment I would struggle to make a starter greater than 2L but reading that article has me wondering whether I could make a starter in a fermenter and then add the rest of the wort when it is kicking off.

I could start with 2-4L and add a cube after a day or 2. Headspace might be an issue but I could flush with CO2. Would this be a reasonable approach to make sure there's enough viable yeast for a cold pitch?

 

[manticle]

Sounds like it to me.

 

[dicko]

I should clarify that I was planning on making a 2L starter for a 15L ferment rather than the total volume produced.

With my current equipment I would struggle to make a starter greater than 2L but reading that article has me wondering whether I could make a starter in a fermenter and then add the rest of the wort when it is kicking off.

I could start with 2-4L and add a cube after a day or 2. Headspace might be an issue but I could flush with CO2. Would this be a reasonable approach to make sure there's enough viable yeast for a cold pitch?

Before I had all my yeast starter equipment I used to do that by pitching the yeast into a few litres of wort in a 10 litre fermenter and when it kicked on I would pitch that into the wort.