Urgent Lager Question

[gibbocore]

Hi chaps,

I'll describe the situation.

I brewed a triple decocted pils yesterday and had made a pretty large starter at the same time with the intention of chilling it overnight to drop the yeast and pour off and pitch by the time i was down to larger temps (8 degs). The wort has now been in the fermenter for 24 hours with no yeast, its fully sealed up (i have a closed lid for chilling of wort before pitching) but i get nervous after 24 hours, problem is my yeast is a super healthy one and is still chewing away and releasing co2 therefore stiring itself up and not settling after a night in the fridge (my stupid fault for putting a lid on the bottle and letting it get preasurised). My question is, do i just pitch the entire 1L starter, or wait one more night and pitch in the morning? Pros and cons of either from what i can gather is if i pitch now, i may get some strange flavours that will have nowhere to hide in a 100% wey pils lager, or wait one more night and increasy my chances (by how much i'm not sure, i double steamed the fermenter, used a new tap and pasturised all sides of the fermenter with boiling iodophor soloution) of infection.

Help please,

signed,

Nervous brewer .

PS i'm going back to fermentoutintwodaysstressfreeales

 

[fcmcg]

Hi chaps,

I'll describe the situation.

I brewed a triple decocted pils yesterday and had made a pretty large starter at the same time with the intention of chilling it overnight to drop the yeast and pour off and pitch by the time i was down to larger temps (8 degs). The wort has now been in the fermenter for 24 hours with no yeast, its fully sealed up (i have a closed lid for chilling of wort before pitching) but i get nervous after 24 hours, problem is my yeast is a super healthy one and is still chewing away and releasing co2 therefore stiring itself up and not settling after a night in the fridge (my stupid fault for putting a lid on the bottle and letting it get preasurised). My question is, do i just pitch the entire 1L starter, or wait one more night and pitch in the morning? Pros and cons of either from what i can gather is if i pitch now, i may get some strange flavours that will have nowhere to hide in a 100% wey pils lager, or wait one more night and increasy my chances (by how much i'm not sure, i double steamed the fermenter, used a new tap and pasturised all sides of the fermenter with boiling iodophor soloution) of infection.

Help please,

signed,

Nervous brewer .

PS i'm going back to fermentoutintwodaysstressfreeales

I did my 3rd all grain this week...same deal..did a larger...put it into the fermenter in my fridge over night to get it down to 10deg before i pitched the yeast...i reckon pitch the starter....i too was worried about an infection but at the end of the day , if your fermenter was really clean and then sealed...i would think that your chance of infection would be low...just my 2c..

 

[kenlock]

Hi chaps,

I'll describe the situation.

I brewed a triple decocted pils yesterday and had made a pretty large starter at the same time with the intention of chilling it overnight to drop the yeast and pour off and pitch by the time i was down to larger temps (8 degs). The wort has now been in the fermenter for 24 hours with no yeast, its fully sealed up (i have a closed lid for chilling of wort before pitching) but i get nervous after 24 hours, problem is my yeast is a super healthy one and is still chewing away and releasing co2 therefore stiring itself up and not settling after a night in the fridge (my stupid fault for putting a lid on the bottle and letting it get preasurised). My question is, do i just pitch the entire 1L starter, or wait one more night and pitch in the morning? Pros and cons of either from what i can gather is if i pitch now, i may get some strange flavours that will have nowhere to hide in a 100% wey pils lager, or wait one more night and increasy my chances (by how much i'm not sure, i double steamed the fermenter, used a new tap and pasturised all sides of the fermenter with boiling iodophor soloution) of infection.

Help please,

signed,

Nervous brewer .

PS i'm going back to fermentoutintwodaysstressfreeales

Not that I think you have a large chance of infection, but I would pitch the yeast. Had you no chilled and had the wort still sitting in the cube I would have left the starter to continue to multiple yeasties.

For a lager I would be making a bigger starter, in the vicinity of 2.5 -4L.

 

[gibbocore]

cheers guys, the starter was a reactivation of a yeast cake from a previous batch that i saved, about half a liter of slurry.

So you reckon i wont get any strange flavours?

 

[mika]

I'd pitch it, you'll hardly notice it, if at all. BTW, 1L starter, way too small. May want to start it off a bit warmer to make sure it takes hold alright.

Edit: Posting too slow, if it was a yeast slurry you're probably alright.

 

[gibbocore]

cool, cheers fellas, imagonna pitch it.

 

[kram]

Hey Gib, I know you're pretty on the ball with sanitation and stuff so it could probably handle a bit longer in the fermentor. I'd only be worried about pitching the starter if it is in the 20's or so as you may shock the yeast when it gets added to the wort.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

pitch pitch

with half a lite of slurry you aren't getting any growth in that 1L starter anyway - and growth + oxidation is where your dodgey flavours are going to come from in a starter that was done in order to increase cell count. You are unlikely to have had much of either.

All you have is a litre of more dilute slurry with some actively fermenting yeast in it.

Personally, I wouldn't have made the "starter" - perhaps taken a small amount of it and proofed it to make sure it was still good - but by adding so little wort to so much yeast, I feel that all you have done is get said yeast out of its dormancy, through a growth phase it doesn't need in such a small volume of wort, and into active fermentation. When you dump that into your wort - it has to stop, go back to lag and growth - then re-enter fermentation.

For me - a starter is about one of two things. Either pitching a good amount of yeast that is in active growth phase - or pitching a (slightly) larger amount of yeast that is dormant and has prepared itself to start from scratch all over again.

TB

 

[gibbocore]

cheers, its pitched.

I take it then that the reason why i cant get it to floc out is because it is pretty healthy and happy to keep chewing away at the wort at 4 deg?