3 hour lag time!!!!

Brewed my Northern Brewer caribou slobber brown this morning. Pitched the Wyeast 1332 from my 1.5 liter starter I made on tuesday. Used some Wyeast yeast nutrient during the boil. Pitched my yeast at 11:00 and threw my fermenter in my swamp cooler @ 68 degrees. Got done mowing the grass about 2 and went to check the temp of my swamp cooler and noticed airlock activity. After only 3 hours!!!!! Starters and yeast nutrient are going to be staples in my brew process from now on.

Without a doubt, I love doing starters. Anymore, I get nervous when I don't see activity within 3 hours of pitching.

I've done only 2 starters so far. Both were pitched in the evening and going strong by the next morning. I'm also sold!!

Quick lag times are not necessarily a good thing. It may actually be stressing the yeast, since they aren't taking the appropriate time to acclimate to the wort environment and uptake the essential nutrients for optimal health.

It's probably not that big of a deal, but you might be overpitching or pitching too warm. Just some things to think about.

PseudoChef said:

Quick lag times are not necessarily a good thing. It may actually be stressing the yeast, since they aren't taking the appropriate time to acclimate to the wort environment and uptake the essential nutrients for optimal health.

It's probably not that big of a deal, but you might be overpitching or pitching too warm. Just some things to think about.

Click to expand...

Definitely not to warm. Pitched at 70 degrees. Don't think I overpitched either. According to Mr. Malty I needed a 1.9 liter starter. I only pitched a 1.5 liter starter. It was a pretty active starter though. I see what your saying though and appreciate the input.

PseudoChef said:

Quick lag times are not necessarily a good thing. It may actually be stressing the yeast, since they aren't taking the appropriate time to acclimate to the wort environment and uptake the essential nutrients for optimal health.

It's probably not that big of a deal, but you might be overpitching or pitching too warm. Just some things to think about.

Click to expand...

It's possible that there isnt enough O2 in the wort too. That is a bit quick to go from aerobic to anaerobic. You do want the yeast to reproduce for a while.

PseudoChef said:

Quick lag times are not necessarily a good thing. It may actually be stressing the yeast, since they aren't taking the appropriate time to acclimate to the wort environment and uptake the essential nutrients for optimal health.

It's probably not that big of a deal, but you might be overpitching or pitching too warm. Just some things to think about.

Click to expand...

+1

I always like to have mine start quick. At 12 hours, I like to know there is some activity going on. But at 3 hours, it is too soon. The yeast need time to reproduce, and during that time they are creating the building blocks for the esters they are going to create. If you start too quick, you will lose some of the yeast flavors and risk creating fusel alcohols.

As pseudo noted, a quick start is usually a sign of over-pitching or a high pitching temperature.