Lager starter questions

I am doing my first lager this brew. I pitched a starter in my garage(60-65f) 24 hours ago but have seen absolutely no activity. How long after I pitch should I plan to pitch into the primary? Wont the yeats be at the bottom (I use a tupperware container so I cant see inside of it) and so how long do you all usually wait?

To bad you used a non transparent container.

What kind of yeast did you pitch? How did you aerate the wort?

Take a sample of the wort and give it a taste. Maybe the yeast is already done with it.

Kai

I used white labs octoberfest yeast. It has been fermenting for about 32 hours. I aerated by shaking it for about 3 mins (was basically all foam when I finished).

did you taste a sample?

If it doesn't taste fermented, I would assume that the yeast is dead. Which is pretty unlikely though. What was the expiration date on the vial?

Kai

lager yeast is oktoberfest and is dated to jun so it should still be good. I looked in there and there is a little activity(krausen) on the surface. How long can I use it fromnow? may not be able to brew until friday.

take a sample and taste it. If it still tastes somewhat sweet there are still sugars in the beer and the yeast has something to eat. Also rouse the yeast by shaking it once in a while this will keep more of them in contact with the beer.

If it doesn't has much sweetness anymore, dump some of the spent beer and feed the yeast some fresh wort to keep it going until friday and even grow some more. If you don't want to do that, put the yeast in the fridge until friday.

Kai

Cool thanks, so if I put the starter in the fridge it shold save the yeast until friday?

Should be fine, but you may want to wake it up again on Thursday. Give it some more food and put it at ferment temp before pitching.

Cool, thanks all, brewed tonight. My first partial mash and first lager. Hopefully it will turn out well. Thanks Kai and cat!