Lager Starter ?

I will be brewing my first lager on friday. I don't have a stir plate so I see that I should plan on doing a gallon starter. I will be doing an partial mash 5 gallon recipe using LME and steeping grains. The yeast is White Labs German Lager wlp830(one vial came with the kit).

I am planning on brewing Friday Morning, and have a few questions before I get started.

Should I use the LME that came with my kit and pour the whole starter into the wort?
When should I start the starter? Tonight(wednesday night), tomorrow, etc?

I would have started last weekend. I would have started with a 500ml starter. Use that slurry to make two 1000ml starters and then bump each of those to 2000ml starters. I pitch just the slurry so will keep some LME around just for starters. In your situation I probably would plan on pitching the whole starter so would use the LME from the kit.

I would use DME and make a starter of 1-1/2 gallons with frequent shaking. Let it ferment out and cold crash it overnight. Decant and pitch on Sunday. Yes, put off brewing. Start now.

If you have the starter going already and it is already fermenting, you can make the batch on Friday. Just pitch the entire contents into the wort and you should be good to go. I've made starters a couple of days before and had good success, even though it isn't optimum.

If you pitch the entire contents than don't do the frequent shaking, just shake it before you had the yeast and then leave it.

Thanks for the tips. I made the starter out of the included LME and am planning on pitching the entire starter. Next time I will plan on doing the starter a bit earlier. Out of curiosity, why do you say to not shake the starter if I am planning on pouring the entire thing into my wort?

kranak said:

Out of curiosity, why do you say to not shake the starter if I am planning on pouring the entire thing into my wort?

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Shaking it oxidizes the wort. You don't want it effecting the final flavor of the beer.

If you want a better quality beer, for the love of god, wait another week! A gallon of starter wort is to much imo to pitch in a batch. I'm not even sure a gallon will ferment properly in that short of time. To make a great lager, you need a huge starter. I would shake the piss out of it, you need oxygen.

Let it ferment out 3-4 days, then refrigerate at least 3 more. Lager yeast will not drop out as fast as ale yeast. On brew day, cool wort as low as possible(low50's), take starter out of fridge, decant and cold pitch. I guarantee these results.