Should I Be Worried?

Ok folks so this is my first lager. I made up the starter 2 days ago. I had it sitting room temp and then put in fridge last night before I went to bed. Brewed up this morning and as I was starting I took out the starter to be ready for it. Had the wert cooled down to about 70 and the starter was around 50. I dumped off some of the starter so I could stir up the yeast cake at the bottom and then poured it into the fermenter covered it and air lock inserted put into freezer set temp to 50 and had to get ready for work. Came home about half hour ago expecting to have some sort of action, after seeing what my rehydrated yeast did in my other brew, and nothing. So I decided to pop the lid off and as I suspected no krausen at all.

Question is should I be worried or should I give it a day or so and see what happens? I can easily grab another packet of yeast tomorrow just in case.

Lager = longer. How big a starter did you pitch? What yeast? Normally, you'd want to pitch a lager at or below fermentation temps, but that's not going to cause you not to ferment - just less desirable flavor profile.

900ml starter and used Saflager S-23. So I guess I should have waited to pitch tonight when I got home and it sat in the freezer for about 12 hours then? I thought about doing that but figured I would be ok since I was putting it right into the freezer. I have the probe taped right to the bucket to help regulate the temp better. I was right about where it should have been when I put it in there. Should I, to be on the safe side, pick up a packet of yeast to put in it if it does not start by Sun. or Mon.?

You don't want to do a starter with dry yeast as it actually hurts viability. Just rehydrate and pitch. Liquid yeast need a starter but for a lager you'd need to pitch 3 to 4 liter starter on a lager as you need more cells to do one clean and finish right. Not sure on your gravity but check out Mr Malty on how many packs you need - likely 4 packs of 5gram or 2 packs of 11.5 gram for an average lager. Check out the ferments link below for more info on the yeast rehydration recommendations. http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/HB/EN/Saflager_S-23_HB.pdf

Gravity was on the money at 1.060. Thank will definitely check that out. I only went with the starter since that was what was "suggested" where I got the kit from. I will just go get more and pitch tomorrow night after work.

Also if I am understanding it right I should rehydrate with 230 grams or 8 ounces of water.

Once a lager of mine took 11 days to start as a result of under pitching, haha. came out pretty well nonetheless

If it was me, I'd pick up two more 11.5 gram packs. - rehydrate as you've calculated and you'll be fine. Did you aerate well? I like to blast them with a minute of pure oxygen and always use nutrient when doing bigger beers, especially lagers.

Ok so I did have the calcs correct then. I don't have good means for aerating so just kinda shook it some without spilling. I do need to get some form of aeration tool to have. I will grab some nutrient tomorrow as well. That goes in while rehydrating or separately into the fermenter?

Hey I have a similar problem with my lager. I pitched at around 75F and it stayed at about 64F for a couple days which I know is way too warm but it was bubbling pretty good. (which I know isnt necessarily a good thing) Then I got the bright idea to throw frozen water bottles into my bin filled with water that I keep my fermenter in to stabilize the temps. It has been at 12C/54F since then but the bubbling has completely stopped and the water in the airlock is totally just evened out now. Also I can see the top of the beer and it looks all chunky on top. Anything I should try or is this normal? Is it still fermening you think? And do you think I still have a chance of getting a drinkable beer out of it???

Drastic temp changes is shocking to yeast. May have killed them, and you certainly shocked them which isn't good. Beyond that, the first 48 hours or so is key to flavor - guessing this won't be your best beer.

chrisdaman77 said:

Ok so I did have the calcs correct then. I don't have good means for aerating so just kinda shook it some without spilling. I do need to get some form of aeration tool to have. I will grab some nutrient tomorrow as well. That goes in while rehydrating or separately into the fermenter?

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Take your yeast nutrient and boil, then cool to you fermentation temp, in a 1/4 cup of water. Then just pitch it with your rehydrated yeast and give your beer a good agitation. Rock it back and forth really good if you don't have another method of aeration. Need to do all of this soon as your under pitched yeast are multiplying as I type - and too much growth gets you undesirable results. Once growth is done, aeration isn't advised.