Cal Common yeast questions...

[fat_astronaut]

I just pitched a vial of White Labs San Fran Lager yeast 810 into my starter on my stir plate. I pitched at 23*C, (73*F), is this going to be an issue? I didn't think about it being a lager yeast, didn't know if I should have cooled my wort down more.

Also, I pitched just now, (5pm, Monday), and I am planning on brewing Sunday. Will that be enough time for a lager/hybrid yeast to fully ferment the starter? I made a 1.5 litre starter with 1 and 1/2 cups of DME. I am shooting for a 5 gallon batch size. At that amount of time, would it be good to just let it stir until brew day, and pitch the whole thing, rather than decanting?

 

[jdauria]

You are ok pitching WLP810 at room temps for a starter. It's not really a lager yeast, it's a hybrid and for a Cal Common, you would ferment in the 60's anyway. Many of the Brewing Network shows say even regular lager yeast can be used in a starter at room temp, but should be closer to fermenting temp when pitching into the wort.

A starter on the stir plate on Monday for a Sunday brew is a little long...you usually want to pitch with 2-3 days of making the starter and a 1.5 liter starter will not take a week. Remember you are not fermenting the starter, you are growing and strengthening the yeast.

I think you made too large of a starter too...the basic rule is 1 gram of DME to for every 10 milliliters of starter wort...so a 1.5 liter starter would mean 150 grams of yeast or about 5.5 ounces. You made a starter with 12 ounces (1.5 cups) or 342 grams!...so not knowing what the gravity of the beer you are planning on making and how old the yeast you used was...but you most likely have a starter with a gravity of 1.070 or higher. You want starters to be low gravity, usually between 1.030-1.040.

I would recommend keeping the yeast in suspension in the starter and only pitching half to 2/3 of the starter, otherwise you will be over pitching the wort.

Read this on how to make a starter - http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

And this starter calculator at http://www.mrmalty.com in the future. Or other starter calculators out there.

Note: Using that calculator, assuming 1.050 starting gravity for your beer, and selecting "hybrid" not lager because that's what the yeast and beer style are, then putting 10/15 as the yeast date and an average growth factor of 3...the calculator says you needed to make a starter of 1.22 Liters = 122 grams of DME.

Lastly, when using White Labs, the date on their vials is "best by" so when using a calculator you need to back up 4 months.

Hope this helps!

 

[fat_astronaut]

Thanks for the info. I had read elsewhere that I should use 1 cup of DME per litre of water, so that's why I went with a cup and a half for 1.5 litres. This is too much I guess?

I decided to pitch so early, because I thought that being a lager yeast, or hybrid, it would take longer to ferment out, even at room temp. It is my first time using anything but an ale yeast.

And I assumed I had to make a bigger starter because it was a lager.

I am at work, but will read up on the links when I am home. Thanks for the help!