Hello all I've made lots and lots of yeast starters with ale yeast so I have my system down pretty well. However, I'm making my first lager and have no experience with lager yeasts. I made a starter with 1.4 L of water and 8 OZ of DME. I'm using WLP800 and have seen very little activity. Is this normal? Does it take longer to make a starter with lager yeast than ale? I didn't see any activity whatsoever for the first 24 hours. This is what I see now. Is this normal? Thanks in advance.
Lager strains (and lager-like strains) tend not to make as much foam. Are there CO2 bubbles rising in the wort? What happens if you shake it?
It looks like there is some activity and bubbles starting to form, just nothing like what I'm used to for an ale. For my ales I usually make my starter, let it sit on stir plate for 3 days, cold crash in fridge for 24 hours, and then pitch the next day. Would that schedule work for a lager or does it take longer?
At same temps, I haven't noticed lager starers to be slower than ale starters, on average. But every starter is different, because every pack of yeast is different, from a viability and vitality standpoint.
This has not been my experience. I find lager strains to be slow to start, something like 12-18 hours for activity to kick off. On average, slower than ale strains. This has been my experience. Some ale starters are roaring in an hour or two, some take half a day to get in gear. My experience is longer lag time before it starts, then similar time as ale to finish. What was the date on your packet? Starter temp? Pretty sure you have a PurePitch packet which is different from what WL has made in the past. With the packet Lot Number you can do some sleuthing to get more info on your specific packet. Once it starts expect to have a low krausen (ditto in your primary). No activity for 24 hours is pushing what I would be comfortable with. Once it starts you should be getting off-gassing similar to ale but at a lower level of intensity. It should finish in less than 48 hours. Pretty sure your 3 days of stir plate for ale strains is overkill. I find my ale starters are usually done in 24 hours if the stir bar is spinning.
Not that it matters, but genetics show that WLP-800 is an ale yeast. A close cousin to WY2565 genetically.
Lol. I didn't want to start the WLP800 denial meltdown thread again, so I simply said "Lager strains (and lager-like strains)..."
