Lager Yeast Starter Issues

I made a yeast starter about 30 hours ago for Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast (WLP802) and there is no activity. I made the starter by boiling .75 lbs of DME in a half gallon of water. I took the yeast out of the fridge and let it sit next to the starter overnight on the counter to both settle to 70 and then pitched the yeast into it the next morning. Here's where I made an idiot move: After pitching the yeast, I dumped the entire starter into a bowl and ran a hand mixer on it for about 5 minutes to aerate it. I am guessing that the mixer blades physically chopped up all my yeast cells to smithereens. Anyway, no activity. What should I do? Start over???? Lame.

How do you know whether or not you have no activity? It's a bottom-fermenting yeast, so how are you gaging this? An airlock? I doubt that (relatively) huge metal blades "chopped" 100 million+ single-celled organisms...but I wouldn't recommend that practice anyhow. I wouldn't worry...just let them do their thing and hopefully you'll be fine. I don't think the hand mixer thing is the culprit either way...

no airlock activity, no motion within the wort, no bubbles, no krausen.

And is there any yeast buildup on the bottom of your flask?

Sounds like your yeast is no good. That's why I use Wyeast Activator packs---that way, you know whether they're viable or not before pitching into the starter. Again, I don't think the hand mixer had anything to do with it, I just think the yeast wasn't viable to start with. I'd use something else, and ask for a replacement from the place of purchase. Most places are good about it, as long as it's within the standard date range. If you've had the vial in your fridge for a year, I wouldn't count on getting a replacement.

Oh, and get yourself a $30 aeration kit. Good investment, for your wort and your starters.

Sounds like you made your starter at least twice as strong as necessary. The general rule for a starter is 3oz/qt (or liter). The yeast are probably having a tough time getting up to strength to start eating it.

0.75lbs (12oz) of DME would be about right for a 1 gallon starter which is really what you should be making for a lager, anyways. I would add 1/2 gallon of water after checking the gravity of the starter you made to ensure that it hasn't in fact fermented out.

In the future, shaking your starter is adequate enough for aeration without resorting to power tools

Everything is working now. Just took a while for it to take off. I purchased an aeration stone setup today and will be using that in the future.

re: the starter gravity. .75 pounds of DME into a half gallon of water gives a 1.053 SG according to promash. Is that wrong???

oops... just checked again and that would be 1.069. Is that too high for this yeast??? It seems to be going now so I'm not too worried.

OK, starter is going great. I have a question: I do not want to pitch the whole starter, Can I just decant off the wort and pitch the sludge at the bottom??? The starter is in full swing bubbling constantly. Is the yeast mostly in suspension or is their enough settled on the bottom? Pitched 50 or so hours ago.

It is my understanding that it is best to decant the liquid off lager starters as lagers are more susceptible to "off flavors" which you may get from preparing a starter (especially if you use a stirplate)...plus lager starters are larger than ale starters and it would be best not to dilute your tasty lager-wort with starter wort.

Cheers.

I guess my question has more to do with the composition of the sediment layer at the bottom of the starter and how that changes over time.

When I first prepared the starter, before pitching the yeast, there was a small layer of tan sediment with a perfectly smooth surface. I am guessing this was composed of protein (trub) from the DME.

at 50 hours after pitching, there are a ton of tiny bubbles coming up through the wort and the sediment layer now has a lighter, uneven, grey top layer that I am guessing is yeast. Is this yeast dead or alive? Do the yeast die constantly and blend with live yeasts to form the layer or does the bottom part of the yeast layer contain more dead cells or vice versa?

In order to maximize the number of live yeast cells in the sediment layer, I assume that I would have to wait for fermentation within the starter to end and for the wort/beer in the starter to clear. What I am worried about right now is that perhaps all of the live yeast are floating in suspension since there is plenty of sugar still to be consumed and that the sediment contains only trub and dead yeast.

If someone knows exactly how yeast behaves and when it settles and the composition of sediment layers at different times during fermentation and can possibly compare and contrast lager/ale yeasts in this regard, I would much appreciate the information. Thank you in advance!!!

1.069 is way too high for a starter. A gravity that high will put undue stress on your yeast and, as you've seen, it will take some time before it can grow enough to start consuming it.

The very flexible rule is that your starter should be around 70% the strength of the wort it will be pitched to. This is just a general rule and since my beers average around 1.050 I shoot for 1.035-1.040 on my starters which has worked well for a range of wort gravities.

Once I realized it was too strong I added some water with a bit of yeast nutrient. It seems to be chugging along just fine now.

Should I let it ferment completely before pitching? Or, should I stick it in the fridge now (at high krausen) to force the yeast cells to settle to the bottom? I am guessing the latter would be the best option since the yeast are not reproducing at this point.

I might be brewing tomorrow so should I put it in the fridge now to let the live yeast settle out? Is there any reason not to do so??

Also, if anyone thinks my yeast is simply retarded or mutated at this point from all the crap it has been through and that I should just start over, please say so. I have never brewed a lager before and want to do it right.

Your yeast are fine, and putting in the fridge is what I would do, but it will continue fermenting - they're lager yeast.

In the fridge it has goes. What happens next? Nobody knows.