Yeast Starter Vs Pitching 2 Smack Packs?

I searched and didn’t find an answer to this but I apologize if I’m repeating a post.

Just posing a question here… If I want to decrease lag time on liquid lager yeast could I pitch 2 smack packs instead of making a starter. Besides the obvious disadvantage of price would this work or would pitching 2 packs result in over pitching?

For Pete's sake! It is not the end of the world to pitch at 69 F if you have reasonable homebrew sanitation.

Aspera said:

For Pete's sake! It is not the end of the world to pitch at 69 F if you have reasonable homebrew sanitation.

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Wha?

To answer the actual question, even two packs would likely be under pitching. You need a massive amount of yeast to start a lager because of the lower temperatures. You really should do a starter, and a rather large one at that.

Aspera said:

For Pete's sake! It is not the end of the world to pitch at 69 F if you have reasonable homebrew sanitation.

Click to expand...

Have another brew.

I'd use a starter they aren't difficult.

That said, if your lager has an OG of 1.04, and you accept the general guide for lagers you need about 270 billion cells for a five gal. batch.
Two Activator packs offer 200 billion. So you'd be under pitching but not by a huge amount.

Of course 1.04 is a lowish OG so you may need more. Add about 27 billion for each .004 of OG.

You'll probably be fine, I've pitched smaller amounts and gotten away with it.

But don't be afraid of a started they aren't difficult to use.

Regards

I've not brewed a lager, but I've got two starters under my belt now. I was hooked after the first one; they're quite easy to do and a great way to get a beer started.

once you make a starter you won't go back, caution it may lead to yeast washing too!

For my first lager I was bad... I didn't use a starter... Pitched 1 Pack 72 hours later no signs of fermentation. So pitched a second one. I have slow fermentation but I do have fermentation. Checked gravity today and it's about 3/4 of the way through (it's been about 8-9 days since fermentation started). So I'm doing a D-Reset right now and then on to the lager phase. Next time I defiantly plan on using a starter.