Lager yeast starter question

[dionbill]

I found a Wyeast lager smack pack in the back of my fridge that I kinda forgot about. It was 8 months (from manufacturing). So according to yeast calculators there is no viable yeast. Regardless, I smacked it and in 4 days it swelled up tight. So I ran it through a starter on a stir plate (1 cup DME, 4 cups water). Over the next 24hrs there was no krausen and it appeared dead (similar to just spinning water) so I pored it into a few mason jars to see what would settled out. Below is a pic of how it settled out 24 hrs later. I'm fairly new to starters and have never done a lager starter. What settled on the bottom looks like yeast but I'm not sure. Can someone shed some light on this for me? It that yeast settled on the bottom? Is it still viable? Thanks gang for any and all info you might be able to provide me. Cheers!

Something just occurred to me... I ran the starter at room temperature (as I do with me ale yeast) and not at a low temp that is probably required. Is that why I had these results? Think I can salvage it if I run it through another starter at a lower temp?

Dion



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[Omahawk]

In looking on my phone, but that looks like yeast to me. I'd try pitching it in another starter of fresh wort and see if you can step it up and collect more yeast.

Also, lager starters at room temp are fine. You don't want to pitch much of the estery beer that is created by a room temp starter into your final wort batch though. Decant the spent wort before pitching in your brewday wort.

 

[roddog]

At room temp is fine, just repitch onto another starter wort and grow it again then cool it down to pitching temp and pour off most of the liquid prior to using it.

 

[dionbill]

Great, thanks guys. The lack of Krausen while stirring led me to believe there was no viable yeast. I always decanter the beer off once it settles out. I will do the same here and repitch into another starter...

Cheers,

Dion

 

[BigFloyd]

You'll often not get much, if any, krausen when doing stir plate starters, especially lager yeast.

One way to check is to take a small piece of cling wrap, spray with StarSan, put it over the mouth of the flask and place a rubber band over it tight to seal. If it's producing CO2, the cling wrap will start to swell up.