Pitching 3 days after brewing. Ok or screwed?

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aeonderdonk

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So, I am brewing my first lager and I neglected to make a starter in advance because I didn't have any DME and didn't feel like driving 45 minutes each way to the LHBS. Instead I am making a starter by brewing 6 gal instead of 5.

I took 2Q from the brew and am using that to make a starter using a smackpack at 60F. I'm planning on pitching at high krausen (~3 days from now).

In the mean time I have the wort in the fridge chilling with an airlock waiting for the starter to be ready.

Will this be ok? I've never waited DAYS after brewing to pitch and this being my first lager has me a bit paranoid.
 
Should be fine. The sooner you pitch after brewing the better, but as long as you have it in the fridge and closed up tight it should be good to go!
 
Well if you were careful with your sanitization regimine and didn't violate the integrity of the airlock duing that time, you might be fine. It's not an ideal situation, but our beer usually turns out ok despite the boneheaded moves we sometimes make.
 
So I smacked the smack pack and left it for ~12 hours at 60F. It was sorta swollen so I pitched it into the starter (also 60F). Hopefully it will take off in the next day or two.

Anyone else with similar experience to this have any advice?

Trying to be patient but this is my first experiment with cold starters and am somewhat on edge about it.
 
What size (OG) is it? Unless you are making something huge, you probably would have been better off just underpitching with the vial you had.

edit: I see its a lager. In that case you really should have a starter. That being said, I probably still would have just underpitched it
 
Pitch the starter after 18-24 hours. No need to wait 3 days. After 24 hours the yeast have done all the multiplying that they are going to do. Waiting additional time will not give you any more yeast, it will just cause your starter to begin to ferment out...which it can do with the rest of the wort.
 
Sooooooo, despite an underinflated smack pack and no visible signs of fermentation (krausen or otherwise) I should pitch it tonight (24 hours from pitching smackpack into starter)?

I've been hearing pitch at high krausen which for a cold starter can be anywhere from 2-3 days.
 
In reality, while a smackpack should have a starter made, it by no means requires one (I have used smack packs straight out of the package, they are perfectly fine). They take about 48 hrs to really starting bubbling.

I personally say the risk of contamination due to 3 days just sitting there is the great evil. Just toss it all in now. But that is simply what I would do.
 
Sooooooo, despite an underinflated smack pack and no visible signs of fermentation (krausen or otherwise) I should pitch it tonight (24 hours from pitching smackpack into starter)?

Yes, you won't gain anything by waiting longer.
 
Sooooooo, despite an underinflated smack pack and no visible signs of fermentation (krausen or otherwise) I should pitch it tonight (24 hours from pitching smackpack into starter)?

Yes. Thats what I would do.

The whole point of a starter is to get your yeast to multiply so you are pitching the proper amount. After 24 hours they stop multiplying and start fermentation.
 
So, I am brewing my first lager and I neglected to make a starter in advance
....
Will this be ok? I've never waited DAYS after brewing to pitch and this being my first lager has me a bit paranoid.
Sounds like a good reason to always try to have a stock of various dry yeast in the fridge. :)
 
I did something similar with my first all-grain batch. I planned on lagering so instead of using a wort chiller and risking wild yeast infection while I got it down to pitching temp for the lager yeast I just poured the hot wort into my carboy and then put in my sanitized bung and airlock and let it sit in the fridge for a day. It was exactly 52 degrees the next afternoon and I pitched my starter which I had made the same day as the wort. After lagering at 52 degrees for 48 days (I originally mean to lager it for 45 days but I didn't take my first FG reading until the 45th day) I racked to secondary and let it sit at 65 degrees for 10 days and then kegged. It came out awesome. i don't know about letting it sit for 3 days before pitching though. That seems like an excessively long time to wait to pitch.
 
I think you did the right thing waiting for the starter. I also heard jamil say in a pitching-related podcast, it's better to wait as long as it takes to get wort to pitch temps. So I take it, a delayed pitch is not so bad.
 
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