Glibbidy
Well-Known Member
I brewed 10 gallons of Bohemian Pilsner last night, and it appears that I may have grossly underpitched with White Labs 802- Czech Budejovice lager yeast. I had anticipated brewing this batch today (Saturday), so I got my yeast starter in the works on Thursday night. I made a 96 oz. starter for a 10 gallon batch. Pitching it in 48 hours would have be more ideal, but the wife gave me the go ahead to move forward with the brew session on Friday instead of Saturday therefore my starter had only been at it for 24 hours.
I aerated the heck out of this batch, and let it sit out overnight in hopes of fermentation starting, and had plans to move it to the lagering chamber in the morning after fermentation started.
I checked this morning, and there was no action. I made the power call, and moved the primary fermenter into the lagering chamber anyway, and aerated it some more in hopes that fermentation will start soon. I have experienced lag phases from 3-30 hours, pitching adequate amounts of yeast. In this case, I prolly only had a cell count high enough for 7-8 gallons.
Here's the quandry. I don't have anymore WLP 802,and trip to the LHBS is out of the question. I do have some WLP840 American Lager Yeast which I could use to save the batch. Not an ideal solution, but it would save me from dumping 10 gallons.
I realize the yeast will need to work really hard for the fermentation to take-off, so what would you consider a reasonable time frame, to pull the plug, and just throw more yeast at this batch?
I aerated the heck out of this batch, and let it sit out overnight in hopes of fermentation starting, and had plans to move it to the lagering chamber in the morning after fermentation started.
I checked this morning, and there was no action. I made the power call, and moved the primary fermenter into the lagering chamber anyway, and aerated it some more in hopes that fermentation will start soon. I have experienced lag phases from 3-30 hours, pitching adequate amounts of yeast. In this case, I prolly only had a cell count high enough for 7-8 gallons.
Here's the quandry. I don't have anymore WLP 802,and trip to the LHBS is out of the question. I do have some WLP840 American Lager Yeast which I could use to save the batch. Not an ideal solution, but it would save me from dumping 10 gallons.
I realize the yeast will need to work really hard for the fermentation to take-off, so what would you consider a reasonable time frame, to pull the plug, and just throw more yeast at this batch?