German Bock Lager? Yeast

[Finite]

Hey guys ive been a bit quiet for the past few days as I have been bed ridded for 3 days with terrible gastro. I did manage to get out of bed yeasterday long enough to make a starter for my WLP833 yeast which im using in my vienna sometime this week if I improve.

Anyway I made a 1L starter, piched the yeast, aerated well and put it in my lagering fridge at 8.5C. Well this morining....nothing no krausen no bubbling airlock. I went through the bin and got the vial out....no where does it mention to word lager and even sudgests to ferment at 20C (70F). I took the starter out and put it in the ale room where it is now warming up.

The mashmaster page where I purchaced it from clearly states that it is a lager yeast and so does the White Labs page. But the info on the vial and the way its acting makes it seem like an ale yeast.

Anybody know whats going on?

 

[warrenlw63]

Blake

It will ferment at around 10 degrees. Just takes longer to start. If it's just your starter I'd let it sit at Ale temps (around 20 degrees) get the thing fermenting. When fermented out, step it up to a bigger starter (around 2 litres) and when it's fermenting OK slowly bring the fridge down to around 10 degrees.

The day you pitch your wort get the temp of the starter and your wort around the same 10-12 degrees and pitch the starter then when it's stronger. Just bear in mind that lager ferments are a little lazier looking. You may see no activity for around 24-36 hours at low temps.

Hope the guts is better.

Warren -

 

[Gulf Brewery]

and even sudgests to ferment at 20C (70F). I took the starter out and put it in the ale room where it is now warming up.

Anybody know whats going on?

Hi Blake

There is a simple answer for this.
What they suggest on the label is to pitch it at 20C. After that you reduce the temperature over the next 12 to 14 hours to your fermenting temperature. This allows the yeast to mulitply to the required numbers during the aerobic phase at a temperate more suited to growth.

This is a bloody wonderful lager yeast, it just doesn't attenuate quite as much as I would like.

Cheers
Pedro