Brew Day! (California Common) Any advice?

This afternoon will be our first attempt at this California Common recipe I made using BeerSmith. Any recipe suggestions before we start?

Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Est FG: 1.013
Estimated Color: 11.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.3 IBUs
ABV: 5.0%

6 lbs LME Golden Light
10.0 oz Demerara Sugar
8.0 oz Crystal Malt - 60L
2.0 oz Carafa Special III
1.50 oz Northern Brewer [7.10 %] - First Wort 60 min
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [7.10 %] - Boil 20.0 min
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [7.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min
1 package WLP810 San Francisco Lager, 2.5L starter

This is also our first time using liquid yeast and making a starter. I used Jamil's yeast calculator to get an approximate pitching rate, but because we don't have a stir plate and weren't available to shake the starter every hour, I went with the "Simple with O2 at start" calculation... but 2.5L is over half a gallon. Since we do a partial boil and then top-up our carboy to 5 gallons, do I include the volume of starter in that top-up or pitch it after we reach the 5 gallon mark with water? We have a 6 gallon carboy, so 5 gallons is probably pushing it a little with head space already (we'll be using a blow-off tube for sure).

*edit* Forgot to add another question: We ferment in a basement that holds a constant 57 degrees F, and fermentation temps usually sit around 64 degrees F. This would be right near the top of the range for WLP810. Keeping in mind that we're not really looking for lager qualities from this beer, is this problematic or are we just going to get some additional esters from the yeast?

I would cold crash the starter, decant the spent wort, and just pitch the slurry at the bottom. If you do it ASAP and wait until late to pitch, it should drop out almost all the yeast.

Good luck

One more thing, let the yeast come back up as close to fermentation temp as possibe before pitching.

kwingert said:

I would cold crash the starter, decant the spent wort, and just pitch the slurry at the bottom. If you do it ASAP and wait until late to pitch, it should drop out almost all the yeast.

Good luck

Click to expand...

I'm afraid the timing just isn't going to work out to do that this time. I'd want to give it at least 12 hours for the yeast to drop out before decanting (to avoid tossing out the less flocculent yeast cells), which won't be possible given our timelines and the fact that the starter is sitting on the counter at my parent's house right now.

I'll just have to RDWHAHB and remember to factor in some cold-crash time when we make a large starter again. On the bright side, since we aerated just before we pitched the yeast and haven't shaken it at all, perhaps the starter wort won't taste as bad as one that has been continually aerated...