Help! First AG lager and no yeast activity!

Hi everyone. Brewed a Dopplebock yesterday afternoon. Hit all my numbers and pitched wl833 @70 f......cooled to 50f in the fridge overnight and see no signs of fermentation at all. Should I worry or is this common for this yeast or for cooler lager temps? SG 1.080.....pitched 1 vial. Thanks for any help.

Oh, Its been 16 hrs since yeast was pitched....forgot to mention that.

If you pitched only one vial, you underpitched by about fourfold. A lager needs more yeast, and any beer (even an ale) over about 1.060 needs more yeast.

16 hours is way to early to worry! With only one vial, you may have a very long wait before activity shows. Maybe 4 days or so, so don't worry for at least 3.5 more days.

Consult mrmalty.com and check out the yeast pitching calculator next time to see how much yeast is desirable for your batch.

I had similar issues with my Doppelbock. Even though I had used S-23 it seemed to take 2-3 days to get going. You should consider making a yeast starter on high gravity beers. This Doppelbock was the one that got me to draw a line at 1.060. As a personal preference I now make yeast starter for any beer higher than that. There are a ton of posts here on HBT that will help with that if you haven't tried before.

Liquid yeast (without making a starter) can be it's own creature. I have had them take off within a few hours of pitching and I have had them take a few days to "wake up". Alot of this depends on the age of the yeast when you pitch it.

I would give it another day or so before getting too concerened. Odds are you will see activity by that time.

Thanks guys, I just read the vial....indeed I should have done a starter or pitched more. I'm confident that my sanitation is good so I guess I'll just wait and hope for the best. It just makes me nervous that after using all that grain and time, I may have screwed up.

Don't worry at all.....I've done lagers and waited probably 4-5 days for some strains when not using a starter. Bottom line, lager yeast takes longer to get started in my experience.

colder temps mean slower activity
You needed about 400billiion yeasties assuming it was 5 gallons and you only put in around 100billion. Its going to take time for them to propagate enough to really do some work. Yeast Nutrient is always good to have on hand. JIC

not a lager but....
I pitched a starter into my 1080 Russian Imperial Stout and fermentation took off in 15 minutes and didn't slow down for days. bastard dropped to 1019 and i'm bottling it this week. tastes fantastic so far. can't wait.

Looks like I'm getting some action on that dopplebock. There's a bit of krausen and a bubble from the airlock every 3 or 4 minutes. Thanks for reassuring me everyone!