Lag time when pitching from slurry

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I brewed a Belgian Dubbel yesterday and used the slurry from a Leffe clone I racked (also yesterday) which used Belgian Abbey II yeast. I took it from the primary where it resided for a month.

I guess this is somewhat of a noob question, but is the lag time any different when pitching from slurry than from pitching a starter/vial/dry/etc? I have read a lot of "it took of like gangbusters in 3 hours" or "I blinked and it was done" kind of comments when people are pitching from slurry or onto yeast cakes.

I know it's too early to do anything about it at this point, but I was just wondering. And another question... Does it look different when pitching from slurry? My wort seems to look different in that the slurry just seems to have sank to the bottom and there is nothing on top. I am used to seeing something on top even if it's just a thin layer of bubbles or lightly colored texture. Today there is nothing.

Thanks for the help.
 
I've used this technique in the past and found that fermentation usually starts much quicker; at least a day or so is shaved off the time. It might be a bit 'sleepy' after sitting in the primary for a month, figuring that the initial fermentation was close to finished after a couple of weeks. I usually grab yeast from secondary, but that is a matter of opinion.

It usually doesn't look that much different. I brewed today and just pitched yeast about 1/2 hour ago in 2 ales. They are already starting to sink to the bottom, where they will start their work. Don't worry about it and have a brew.
 
Pitching onto a cake will get a faster start. I usually pitch about a quarter of the cake, and it's rocking within 12 hours. I don't think it gets sleepy, I've pitched slurry after being in the fridge for a month and it gets up and goes quick.

I always take my yeast from the primary. That way you have the yeast that did all the work to get to the FG, and flocculated out. If you take from the secondary, you get the yeast that didn't flocculate, and could have problems clearing a later beer. I think you keep closer to the original strain by taking from the Primary, and you get more mutations by taking from the secondary.
 
I generally see better performance all around from slurry, probably not much of a faster start. This is more of a generational thing than slurry vs starter. For a given cell count top cropped yeast will start the fastest.

In general belgian yeast (and wheat beer yeast) are poor bottom croppers. I've certainly done it in the past with acceptable results but I think you will have better luck bottom cropping lager and other ale strains.

Try topping cropping next time with the belgian yeast.

How much slurry did you pitch? How did you estimate the cell density? It's possible you simply underpitched, which isn't the end of the world if you keep the temperature reasonable until high krausen. If you have pH strips, see if the pH has dropped (you'll have to guess what the wort pH was if you didn't measure it, low 5s is a good guess), yeast will produce lots of organic acids early on in fermentation. If that is happening, you'll be fine.
 
Fresh slurry works pretty good, old stuff not so good. I don't bother washing it or storing it. 1/2 cup works about like a pack of dry yeast.

I've been top cropping US-05 and it started very fast. I think I over pitched.
 
It all depends on the yeast cell count and viability. The slurry you have could be anywhere from 0%-100% yeast. And of the yeast that's in there, it could be anywhere from 0%-100% alive.

If you harvested the yeast and then pitched it right away, you probably have great viability.

If you rinsed the yeast really well you probably have great cell count, but if that was a while ago, you could have low viability.

Best bet is to make a starter with your rinsed/washed yeast. But whatever you did will probably be OK for this batch. It's a learning process, evolution of technique. Keep trying different things and you'll find what works best.
 
I find that if I pitch proper amounts the lag is about the same, regardless of the source of the yeast.

The people who get no lag time are way overpitching.
 
I used the MrMalty calculator to figure out how much slurry to pitch. It indicated about 1 cup and I harvested the yeast on the same day as pitching. I pitched a little over a cup of a thin slurry. I didn't wash the yeast at all so I think estimating what % yeast I have in the slurry is probably the tricky part. But like ksbrain said, it's a learning experience. Also should have maybe tried this for the first time with a non-belgian yeast. Seems like that could have something to do with it.

It started out as an experiment anyway. I double-pitched the Leffe rather than making a starter due to some time constraints and my ability to make it to the LHBS. So I chose to brew the dubbel based only on the fact that I wanted to get my money's worth out of the yeast that I spent ~$16 on for one batch.

Anyway, I'm keeping the temperature around 70 F and it's slowly starting to show some activity in there. I'm not worried about it, just wondering what I should do differently next time. I have an APA in another primary with WLP001. I may try something similar with that and see what kind of results I have. If that turns out the same, maybe I'll try washing and making starters.

Thanks for all your comments/advice.
 
I'm having some lag time with a slurry of Wyeast 1762 slurry I pitched yesterday into a RIS. I used little over a cup of slurry I collected from a Rochefort 8 clone I did last month. The Rochefort sat on the yeast for 4wk then I bottled the beer and canned the yeast for 2wk. It's been 24hr with no activity at all. The RIS wort is sitting at about 64 degrees and I'm thinking about ramping that up to 68 unless there's a better idea.

Should I wait it out around 64 degrees?

Ramp up the temp to 68?

buy more 1762?
 
I'm having some lag time with a slurry of Wyeast 1762 slurry I pitched yesterday into a RIS. I used little over a cup of slurry I collected from a Rochefort 8 clone I did last month. The Rochefort sat on the yeast for 4wk then I bottled the beer and canned the yeast for 2wk. It's been 24hr with no activity at all. The RIS wort is sitting at about 64 degrees and I'm thinking about ramping that up to 68 unless there's a better idea.

Should I wait it out around 64 degrees?

Ramp up the temp to 68?

buy more 1762?

The slurry was in the fridge for two weeks? That shouldn't slow it down too much, although 1 cup of slurry may be underpitching the RIS, depending on the OG of the RIS.

Assuming a typical OG of 1.085 for an RIS, with slurry that is a month old (from being in primary for a couple of weeks after it's done, and in the fridge for 2 weeks), mrmalty says that 289 ml would be the right amount of slurry. That's a bit over a cup. If your OG was higher than 1.085, or the yeast had lots of non-yeast material, it could be a little bit of a wait to get going.
 
Thanks Yooper.

I just checked the jar that I had the slurry in and it measured out to about 350ml that I pitched. OG on the RIS was 1.094. I'm so used to seeing fermentation start w/in 12hr when pitching slurry.
 
Thanks Yooper.

I just checked the jar that I had the slurry in and it measured out to about 350ml that I pitched. OG on the RIS was 1.094. I'm so used to seeing fermentation start w/in 12hr when pitching slurry.

That seems right, so I bet it's fine. The slurry is just older- it was inactive for a couple of weeks in a higher alcohol environment when it sat for 4 weeks in primary, then two weeks in the fridge. That would have definitely reduced the viability. But it sounds ok with the amount you used, so you should see activity in 24-36 hours for sure.
 
36hr was all 1762 needed. It's off and running now. I'll have to update the brew-log
 
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