Lager starter has not flocced! Course of action?

Mr. Malty told me to make a 2.7-gallon starter of lager yeast in order to have the proper cell count for my 5 gallon batch of lager. I pitched my starter last Sunday and it has been fermenting all week at 52F. I was planning on brewing tomorrow, but the krausen has not dropped.

Now, I've read advice to pitch the whole starter at high krausen, but this is out of the question due to the size of the starter. I also hopped the starter because I had hoped to make it drinkable, 3 pounds of DME not being particularly cheap.

So, I figure I have about four ways to go here.

One is to carefully rack the starter beer out of the fermenter immediately before pitching, hoping there's enough flocced yeast in the krausen and at the bottom of the fermenter.

The second is to postpone my brew day until next weekend. The milled grains have been sitting in my fridge for a week but I figure they should keep another week under refrigeration.

The third is to brew as normal, then rack to a sanitized, airlocked container, and store in my kegerator at ~34F until the starter is finished.

The fourth is to attempt to cold crash the starter at ~34F over the next 18 hours, hoping enough yeast stays viable in both the cake (to pitch my lager) and the starter beer (so that it finishes fermenting).

I have no idea which would be the best course of action here. Thoughts?

If you plan on brewing tomorrow, I would crash the starter and decant. Otherwise, if you can wait to brew, a few more days won't really matter for the starter. Even if the starter finishes and settles before you brew, it really won't matter much. As long as you don't let the starter sit after settling too long, you'll be fine.

OK, I think the best thing to do is wait a week. Do you think the milled grains will be OK after 2 weeks in the fridge?

One thing I should really invest in is a grain mill.

I also vote for crashing. Pitching the whole thing is out of the question. Next time I'd also let the starter ferment at room temp. If you're really hung up on drinking the starter, then you have to think of it not so much as a starter and more as a mini-batch that you'll harvest yeast from, and allow more time for the mini-batch to finish out. You can't have your cake and eat it too: either make a starter, keep it at room temp and crash/decant so you can use it within a week, or consider it a batch of beer, ferment it out at lager temps, and give it 2-3 weeks to finish.

I'm kegging up about 20g of lager using a couple different strains sometime this week or next weekend. If you want some yeast just send me a message and we can meet up. It'll be third generation.

Sure, the milled grains will be fine for 2 weeks in the fridge. I agree with Run; let the starter ferment at room temperature, regardless if it's an ale or a lager. You're making a starter for you brew only.

Rundownhouse said:

You can't have your cake and eat it too: either make a starter, keep it at room temp and crash/decant so you can use it within a week, or consider it a batch of beer, ferment it out at lager temps, and give it 2-3 weeks to finish.

Click to expand...

Then next time I'll consider it a mini-batch and give it the appropriate amount of time to finish. I just have a serious problem throwing away 3 pounds of DME.

PM headed your way.

Rundownhouse said:

I also vote for crashing. Pitching the whole thing is out of the question. Next time I'd also let the starter ferment at room temp. If you're really hung up on drinking the starter, then you have to think of it not so much as a starter and more as a mini-batch that you'll harvest yeast from, and allow more time for the mini-batch to finish out. You can't have your cake and eat it too: either make a starter, keep it at room temp and crash/decant so you can use it within a week, or consider it a batch of beer, ferment it out at lager temps, and give it 2-3 weeks to finish.

I'm kegging up about 20g of lager using a couple different strains sometime this week or next weekend. If you want some yeast just send me a message and we can meet up. It'll be third generation.

Click to expand...

2+2er?

Yeah, hi Coff!

Well hello sir!