Repitching more yeast in lager within first 72 hours.

I'm looking for a little help from my friends here. I brewed my first lager this weekend and I think I under pitched the yeast by quite a bit. It was a 12 gal batch. The OG was 1.053. I made a starter with 4 vials of Southern German in 1750 ml of DME and ran it on the stir plate for 24 hours. Thats a little under 1/2 gal. I threw the entire starter in. Mr. Malty says I should have pitched just over 1 gal.with the same amount of vial of yeast. What effect is this going to have having not used the increased volume of DME. Should I pitch more at this point. There is activity in the airlock but it is very slow at 48 hours. I know this is early to see activity. I'm fermenting at 53 degrees. Thanks for your help!

 

Your target cell count was 892 billion. Your 1.75L starter with 3 vials (assuming they were fresh) made about 500-520 billion cells. An underpitch, but not as bad as some discussed here.

I'd let it ride at this point. You're going to see that lager ferments, even with the suggested cell count, are slower to take off, more subtle and tend to sustain longer than the ale ferments that you're used to seeing.

When you hit about 85% to the target FG, warm it up to about 61-62*F for 3 days for a d-rest. Taste the hydro sample after the d-rest to see if it has a slick feel on your tongue. If it does, give it a couple more days before you cold crash it.

I use this calc in addition to Mr. Malty - http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/ The numbers are based on some of Braukaiser's experiments and those of Chris White (White Labs).

 

Thank you Big Floyd. I appreciate your input. I noticed in your reply that you said that 3 vials in 1.75 liters equals 500-520 billion. I used 4 vials. What would my numbers be with 4. I am looking at Mr Malty and my numbers don't quite match with yours, its probably my inexperience. Thanks Again!

 

Sorry I misread that. Assuming a yeast production date of 10/01/13, those 4 vials put 340 billion cells into the starter which then grew the culture to 591 billion.