No yeast activity

[Shooey852002]

Made a pilsner beer lme,dme,pitched white labs wlp800 lager yeast @60 degrees it's been 36hrs and no action. I aerated and keep stiring.i added some yeast energizer. Temp is at62 ,maybe let it warm up a bit

 

[Conehead]

Still too early. My best lager took 72 hours to get going a few years ago. Just wait it out.

 

[Shooey852002]

Do you think I should keep the temperature a little warmer until it starts fermenting

 

[GoodTruble]

I would just stay the course. I've had lagers take 3 days to show signs of fermentation.

 

[RM-MN]

Do you think I should keep the temperature a little warmer until it starts fermenting

No. When it starts it will generate heat and will be hard to get it back down to lager fermenting temperature before it throws off esters that lagers are trying to avoid.

 

[Shooey852002]

No. When it starts it will generate heat and will be hard to get it back down to lager fermenting temperature before it throws off esters that lagers are trying to avoid.

OK thanks

 

[Jeroen79]

Also its better to just leave it alone when it has been transferred to the fermenter, stiring can only bring infections.

 

[user 341102]

+1 for everything said here. I wouldn't worry too much about the extra aeration that you've already done. Any idea what the OG was, volume of wort, and how much yeast was pitched? How are you measuring fermentation activity (airlock bubbles don't always work if there's a leak in the system)? If it doesn't start after 4-5d I'd consider re-pitching (especially if the yeast was old)

 

[IslandLizard]

pitched white labs wlp800 lager yeast

Only 1 sleeve, without making a starter first?
What was the best-by date on the package?
Has it been kept refrigerated all the time (bought at a local homebrew store), or sent through the mail?

For reference, here's a yeast pitch/starter calculator, to estimate the number of healthy yeast cells to be pitched:
http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.phpSet the first cell to "Lager (1.5 million cells per ml)."
Your yeast package (sleeve) contains 100 billion cells at manufacturing (6 months before the best-by date). It's slowly downhill from there on.
Purepitch packages loose about 3-6% of their viability per month.

Leave it at 62-64F, until you see foam appear on the beer surface. That will tell you the yeast is working. At that point slowly drop the temps to 56-60F.
If you don't see anything after 3 days since the initial pitching,* it's time to pitch a dry yeast, such as Safale W-34/70. Use 2 packs. for a 5 gallon batch of Lager. Pitch it dry according to their instructions, do not rehydrate.

* Peek through the airlock hole, with a flashlight shining through the side of the fermenter (a brew bucket?). Don't keep opening the fermenter.

 

[Shooey852002]

I pitched 2 savagery pks after 12 hrs it's fermenting I believe my problem was I didn't make a yeast starter at first.