ECY15 slow roller

[michaeltrego]

Three weeks ago I brewed a Marzen with East Coast Yeast Munich Festbier ECY15. The OG was 1.060, but it's only down to 1.030 today and still going. The sample tasted great with no issues. It's fermenting at a consistent 50 deg. and I used a healthy 3L stirplate starter for the 10 gal. batch. I realize I probably should have had a bigger pitch. Any recommendations to get this badboy to finish sooner rather than later?

 

[bassmaster911]

Let it finish at room temp for a d-rest.

 

[michaeltrego]

OK thanks - I think I'll raise it a few degrees each day to get it up to d-rest temps, and hopefully it will be done in a week or so.

 

[smokinghole]

You massively underpitched so that's likely the reason for the very slow fermentation. I would have used about a 3L stirplate starter for a 5-6 gallon batch. If you want more lager on hand I'd brew another one and pitch this slurry into that at about .5L of slurry to 10 gallons. This is based off the pitching rates, which if you check Mr. Malty calculator, should closely agree.

 

[michaeltrego]

I did check with Mr. Malty beforehand. Here is my cold crashed starter -- how many cells would you say are there? I figured I had at least 250ml of thick slurry...

 

[smokinghole]

I just went to Mr. Malty and even if you have between 200 and 300mL of slurry you're still WAY short. Assuming that slurry is approx 1bil/ml if you're 200ml short of the recommended 500ml yu're still 200bil cells short. Did you select lager or ale fermentation on the drop down? I get close to the numbers your describing using ale numbers but lager numbers you're at like 45% of what I am getting.

I'm not trying to prove you wrong here I'm just trying to help you out with proper pitching numbers. You're right on for ale fermentations but lager needs more yeast due to the lower temp.

 

[michaeltrego]

I chose lager / 1.060 / 10 gal. / repitching from slurry / thick yeast: and it reported 227 ml of yeast needed.

 

[smokinghole]

OOoooooh that's the mistake. I can tell you from experience that the slurry at the bottom of your jar is not 4.5billion/ml. The highest cell count I got off a 100bbl fermentor slurry after degassing and letting it settle have all been less than 3bil/ml. I'm not saying thicker slurries don't exist but I'd bet you two rounds of your favorite beer that's not 4.5bil/ml. If the yeast pours after decanting you're not dealing with a "thick" slurry, you're dealing with a medium density slurry.

 

[michaeltrego]

OK - that explains it. I probably should have stayed with the default setting of 2.4 b/ml. That said, I pitched half of what I should have.

I guess my options are to slowly ramp up to d-rest temp and hope it finishes the last 15 points, or give it another dose of fresh yeast to boost it along.