Acceptable lag?

I wanted to run this by the collective wisdom of the group for a sanity check on my process/next steps.

I made an American Rye yesterday (1.059, a little higher gravity than I expected). Wound up with 5.25 gal in the fermenter.

I did not have enough lead time to make a starter so I pitched 2 vials of WLP320 at 65F (ambient temp of the fermenting room, and temp of the wort at the time of pitching). The site puts this at the low end of the range for this yeast. The use-by date on both vials was 1-12-12.

I hit it with 30 sec of pure O2 and pitched at a little after 6 pm yesterday. I just had my wife confirm (at 1 pm today) and there is nothing going on in the better bottle. No activity through the blow off and nothing on the surface of the wort.

Mrmalty.com says for this volume of this gravity with this best by date, I needed 2.3 vials without a starter. So I am figuring this is a combination of being a little under the recommended pitching rate plus the cooler temperature of the wort and fermenting location giving me a sluggish start.

I bought a pack of WB-06 as an insurance policy today at lunch. I am figuring I will either pitch this, or wrap the fermenter in a blanket (or both) if there is still no activity when I get home tonight. I’ve used the WB-06 on this recipe before with good results. But I’d prefer not to mix yeasts if I can avoid it. I am making this beer for a contest and so far, my best reviews on this recipe have been with the WLP320.

Advice?

It hasn't even been 24-hours since you pitched your yeast. This is not abnormal as far as lag time is concerned.

Leave it alone and take a gravity reading after 72-hours if you still haven't seen any activity to see where it's at.

Seven said:

It hasn't even been 24-hours since you pitched your yeast. This is not abnormal as far as lag time is concerned.

Leave it alone and take a gravity reading after 72-hours if you still haven't seen any activity to see where it's at.

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This. I had about 64 hour lag on my ESB, then it took off and is only 1Plato from FG now. I understand the anxiety from the contest aspect, but i'm learning that impatience = inferior beer.

Thanks guys. My last several batches were with a heavy pitch of us05. I probably got spoiled with the less than 12 hour lag times. I was looking at my notes for the last several versions of this recipe and found that everytime I pitched straight from the vial with no starter, even when I double pitched, I had longer than expected lag.

I would like to enter this contest but won't rush the beer by any means. This is my wife's favorite, so it's a win even if I never send a bottle to the contest.

winvarin said:

I would like to enter this contest but won't rush the beer by any means. This is my wife's favorite, so it's a win even if I never send a bottle to the contest.

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Nice!

FWIW, I just listened to Jamil Z on The Brewing Network talk about how home brewers underestimate the importance of lag time. He says that the lag time is essential b/c the yeast are building precursors to esters and other compounds that are desirable in beer. I was stunned b/c I'd never heard or read such a thing and always assumed lag time = wasted time.

Good luck with the contest, man! I'm hoping to enter my first in March. Let us know how it turned out if you decide to enter!

Will do. And the worry was for naught. It had about 1/2 inch of krausen when I got home tonight (about 25 hours after pitching)

2.5 hours later, the krausen is about to reach the neck of the better bottle. This is about par for the wlp320. I am used to a pretty strong blow off with this yeast.

An active starter pitched at the right rate gives me a standard 6 to 12 hour lag. Pitching straight vials which are dormant will take longer.

DannPM said:

An active starter pitched at the right rate gives me a standard 6 to 12 hour lag. Pitching straight vials which are dormant will take longer.

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Even if I am close to the right rate? I figured 2 vials when 2.5 were recommended in a 1.059 wort would take a little longer, just not 24 hrs

Yeah, pitch four beers, one from vials, one from activated smack packs, one from an active starter, and one from krausening. You'll see less and less lag time as you move across the list. If you're pitching them all at the correct same rate you'll get near the same result with the variable being lag time.

Matching the math behind Mr Malty is optimal imo but pitching 20% less isn't going to give your beer any noticeable faults imo.