Made starter, small bubbles after a couple days...

[Crispyvelo]

I was planning to make my first lager this weekend. I decided to follow the general consensus and make a starter with my WLP930. I started it on Wednesday evening (2 days ago) and made a simple 1040ish wort with some LME and shook it around in a sanitized mason jar.

Day 2 morning - No sign of activity in the morning.

Day 2 evening - small trickling of tiny bubbles coming up around the rim near the top of the liquid. No roaring action by any measure...but at least something. I shook it up to get more air, and left it.

Day 3 morning - Much the same. No sign of the action picking up. No krausen on top.

So the couple questions I have are:

1. I heard White Labs only makes this yeast in the spring...so is there a chance I've got some bad/deadish yeast? I'm not at the best by date yet.

2. I heard that things are often slower if you're not using a stir plate. Has anyone experienced something similar?

3. I'd like to brew Sunday, so should I just pitch what I've got and hope for the best? Is it bad to pitch before the starter is done? Clearly theres some some slight indication of activity....Should I swing back by the LHBS and pick up another vile of WLP930 and dump everything in?.

Any insights you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

(I'll post a pic when I get home from work shortly).

 

[antony]

How often did you shake the jar? Before I had a stirplate I used to shake the sht outta the jar everytime I walked by. Krausen would show up within 48 hrs generally, but often was very thin.
1---No idea, but I trust the production date. That's me digging through the back of the fridge looking for the newest yeast package.
2---Things are def. slower if you don't use a plate, though a stirplate isn't needed. If you'll look at the bottom of the jar, odds are you'll see a larger layer of milky yeast at the bottom than when you started. I never had trouble using either method.
3---You really want to pitch a lot of yeast with a lager, its your call as to how to go about doing that. If you don't mind the extra $7 & the lhbs is close by, it wouldn't hurt to pitch additional yeast.

And most importantly, remember its a lager yeast. Lager's bottom ferment while ale's top ferment. You won't generally see a raging krausen on top of your lager. Nothing is to say that you aren't totally fine with ample yeast already. I'd think that the yeast was perfectly fine from wl as well.

Best of luck

 

[Crispyvelo]

@antony - thanks for the reply. Clearly there is some activity happening...it's just VERY slow and there's not much to see visually. There is definitely a decent layer of yeast at the bottom of the jar, so I'm probably going to roll the dice a use it on Sunday. Wish me luck!