I'm making an all grain lager but lost the yeast. I have finished sparging and its ready to boil. I was going to cover and leave for tomorrow when I can get the yeast. Is it better to just add the yeast to the wort or make a starter and wait what would be 2 days to boil post sparge?
All grain lager yeast starter necessary?
- Thread starter Trobocco
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FirstAidBrewing
Well-Known Member
Can you just buy two packs/vials of your yeast?
Gnomebrewer
Well-Known Member
Best option would be two packs/vials (actually, three or four to prevent under-pitching) OR use two dry packets (I really like W34/70).
Next preference would be (if you can only by one liquid pack) to make a 'vitality starter'. Make a starter using a couple of quarts of your wort then pitch the whole thing when the starter shows signs of a krausen (about 4 hours). There's some info on the brulosophy website about vitality starters.
Last option is to cover and leave as cool as possible while you make a regular starter - but that means three days in total. It's getting risky.
Next preference would be (if you can only by one liquid pack) to make a 'vitality starter'. Make a starter using a couple of quarts of your wort then pitch the whole thing when the starter shows signs of a krausen (about 4 hours). There's some info on the brulosophy website about vitality starters.
Last option is to cover and leave as cool as possible while you make a regular starter - but that means three days in total. It's getting risky.
oceanic_brew
Well-Known Member
Do you have a keg?
oceanic_brew
Well-Known Member
This might not be your favorite option for now but this method developed for me out of the same predicament you find yourself in!
The last 20 or so batches I've made i transferred the wort through a hose attached to my valve on the side of my kettle into a clean and sanitized keg while the beer was still near 200.
I then put the lid on and turn the thing slowly upside down to flush the entire inside of the keg with hot wort. I would imagine anything floating in that air inside the keg would have a hard time surviving also.
The keg sits on my back deck until the therm strip on the side reaches a degree or two over pitch temp and then I aggressively pour it into a bucket for fermenting.
When doing a lager I stick the thing in a freezer until it hits temps.
My beers are very clear, tasty, and I only had an infection previous to this.
I should note that once I had to leave town for a while and I just flushed the headspace with the gas a bunch of times and left it for a terrifying number of days. What a delicious beer it made.
The last 20 or so batches I've made i transferred the wort through a hose attached to my valve on the side of my kettle into a clean and sanitized keg while the beer was still near 200.
I then put the lid on and turn the thing slowly upside down to flush the entire inside of the keg with hot wort. I would imagine anything floating in that air inside the keg would have a hard time surviving also.
The keg sits on my back deck until the therm strip on the side reaches a degree or two over pitch temp and then I aggressively pour it into a bucket for fermenting.
When doing a lager I stick the thing in a freezer until it hits temps.
My beers are very clear, tasty, and I only had an infection previous to this.
I should note that once I had to leave town for a while and I just flushed the headspace with the gas a bunch of times and left it for a terrifying number of days. What a delicious beer it made.
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