Pilsner starter, Cold or room temp!

I've looked around and read different answers. Do I want my starter to sit around 70 degrees or should it be colder? Thanks as always.

I've done it both ways and it doesn't really matter. But if your starter is fermented warm, make sure you try to rack off most of the beer before you pitch the yeast. Right now my lager starters ferment at the same temp as I want the beer to ferment. But, I have the luxury of doing my starters in my fermentation chamber.

Room temp is better. you're growing yeast, not making beer, and yeast grows better at warmer temps. As said, be sure to decant the spent wort before pitching.

Thanks guys. Ive had the starter at 68 to 70 for what will be about 18 hours before I pitch it. Im chilling the wort as i type. Question. Forgive my lack of understanding but what do you mean rack off most the beer or decant the spent wort? Also, I wait till the wort is down to around 54 before pitching correct?

Assuming you're growing enough yeast pitching 4-5 degrees below your fermentation temp (aka a Narziss fermentation) and then letting it rise is recommended. When the starter is finished fermenting, or the bulk of reproduction has occurred you can let the yeast settle in the fridge for 24-48 hours. When you want to pitch, carefully pour off the clear wort on top leaving a bit of wort behind to resuspend the yeast. In your case you might have to pitch the whole starter due to lack of time, you could put the starter in the fridge and assuming good sanitation wait until tomorrow to pitch. Alternatively bring the starter down to pitching temp by feeding it a small proportion of the cold wort. The big thing is you can have problems pitching warm yeast into cold wort, colder yeast into warmer wort isn't a problem.

Here's a slightly more coherent website on the subject from another board poster.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers

What that means is to pour or rack off (I pour) almost all the wort in the starter and just leave the slurry to pitch. Leave just a bit if wort to swirl up the slurry. The yeast should be at least as cold, or colder, than your wort. Typically, I take my starters out of the fridge, decant, and pitch immediately.

ETA: what he said! ^^^^^^

Ahh, thanks everyone. Since my wort is already 70 degrees and I should probably pitch as soon as possible to avoid contamination of the wort, you think its ok to just pitch the yeast as is? I only used 2 cups of water and I cant recall how much DME. Point being, there isn't much to rack off. Wort is down to 70 right now, still have the chiller going. Im thinking about putting it in the fridge to cool it down to around 60 or so and then pitching the starter.

It sounds like a very small starter. Usually, for a lager you want a HUGE starter. Like 2 gallons- that's why we always decant the spent wort!

I start my lager starters about a week before brewday, so I can step them up (make them larger) as well as chill and decant them. Lager yeast take a long time to fall out at fridge temps, so I usually chill the starter about three days before brewday.

If your starter is ready and your wort is ready, you could pitch when you get the wort chilled. Try to have the starter and the wort at roughly the same temperature, or the starter just a bit below the wort temperature.

You should really get the wort at or a bit below fermentation temp before you pitch. Yooper's advice is excellent, as always.

Im going to go with the last comment there. Ive already got the wort in the fridge. I didnt realize that a lager starter would be different than normal. Is it a bad idea to get a dry pack and pitch it in as well? Im going for an imperial anyways. OG is 1.084.

Abd yes, Yooper has never steered me wrong either..

I just went through this w a 2 liter starter. My starter was still sweet and had no signs of active fermentation after 24 hours at 50 degrees. I raised the temp to 70 for 18 hours... still somewhat sweet and no krausen. There did seem to be a bit more yeast though. I pitched the whole thing into a well shook up wort and had airlock activity after 18 hours. 72 hours later and I still have very slow airlock activity. At this point, I plan on fermenting for 2-3 weeks at 50 degrees and raising the wort slowly to room temp until fermentation has finished before lagering.

I would suggest a starter in the 60s, stepping it up over a week if you have the time. If you're pitching after 12 to 18 hours like you indicated, you're going to want to pitch the whole thing as many of the yeast will still be in suspension. If you want to decant the wort, I'd chill for 24 hours to get most of the yeast on the bottom, otherwise you'll be throwing away a bunch of healthy yeast.

Thanks Bamsdealer. It looks like I will be doing something along those lines.

1stTimer said:

Is it a bad idea to get a dry pack and pitch it in as well? Im going for an imperial anyways. OG is 1.084.

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You will need the dry yeast at that OG, about 3 11g packs.

I have a starter for a Pilsner going right now -- it's 2 packs in 4500 mL on a stir plate for a 5 gallon batch of anticipated 1.050 wort, just to give you some perspective of the scale you should be working on for lager starters (though this yeast is kinda old).

Thanks 944. Does it matter that the starter I made was with liquid? Is it cool to just pitch the dry pack without making a starter? Just pour the starter (liquid yeast) and the dry pack into the wort at the same time.

Dry yeast should be rehydrated. I like to boil the appropriate amount of tap water, covered, in the microwave to heat-sanitize, then let it cool to body temperature and add the yeast.

http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

I will say I underpitched the yeast... no question. I was very nervous, especially since my yeast didn't take to the starter well. I was happy to see fermentation after 18 hours, but it never did take off like I would have liked.

At this point I'm just going to keep it at 50 and try to forget about it. Hoping for the best.

Good luck

Thanks again everyone. I took the temp down to about 48 and pitches the liquid yeast starter and the dry yeast. I checked this morning and it was still around 48 so I have it warming right now. The thermo is set on 54. We will see what happens. I didnt pitch the yeast till about 10pm so I wasnt really expecting to see any action this morning. Im going home at lunch to check it out again.

I guess its worked out pretty much. The OG was 1.082ish and its now down to 1.016 and still slowly dropping. Phew. Wasnt sure how this baby was going to turn out.