I brewed an Eisbock on Monday at 1.089 OG. I had cooled the wort down to 40 F after boiling, with the expectation that the temp would rise about 8 - 10 degrees by the time my secondary whirlpool was finished and the wort had been racked into the fermenter. That is, pitching temp was supposed to be 48 to 50 F. However, because it was so hot in my garage on Monday, the wort was actually at about 70 F by the time I pitched. I pitched 8 Activator packs of Bavarian Lager yeast that had been constantly aerated in a starter for 8 hours. I have no reason to suspect that the viability of the yeast was low. The Wyeast packaging date was less than a month ago.
Anyway I couldn't let the wort just start fermenting at 70 F, so I set my fermentation chamber to 30 F and let the beer (with the pitched yeast in it) cool to 52 F overnight. No sign of fermentation that morning, which was not surprising as I assumed the yeast would be a little phased by the quick drop in temperature. However, it is now 24 hours since the temperature has been stable at 52 F, and there is absolutely no sign of fermentation. Lag phase shouldn't be this long when pitching 8 freaking packages of yeast from a starter, should it?
I have used the same procedure of preparing the yeast before, but have never subjected the yeast to such a precipitous drop in temperature, so I don't know what to expect. I have never had such a poor lag time in the past with my lagers. Generally by the next morning there are little white patches forming on top, and by the following day there is a nice white foamy head. People crash cool their starters all the time, so I know I didn't kill the yeast by cooling the fermenter 20 degrees over 12 hours. However, since the yeast were at 52 in the starter and were pitched into 72 F wort, which was then cooled to 52, perhaps this was just too much for them??
Any suggestions on how to get the fermentation started, or am I just being impatient?
Anyway I couldn't let the wort just start fermenting at 70 F, so I set my fermentation chamber to 30 F and let the beer (with the pitched yeast in it) cool to 52 F overnight. No sign of fermentation that morning, which was not surprising as I assumed the yeast would be a little phased by the quick drop in temperature. However, it is now 24 hours since the temperature has been stable at 52 F, and there is absolutely no sign of fermentation. Lag phase shouldn't be this long when pitching 8 freaking packages of yeast from a starter, should it?
I have used the same procedure of preparing the yeast before, but have never subjected the yeast to such a precipitous drop in temperature, so I don't know what to expect. I have never had such a poor lag time in the past with my lagers. Generally by the next morning there are little white patches forming on top, and by the following day there is a nice white foamy head. People crash cool their starters all the time, so I know I didn't kill the yeast by cooling the fermenter 20 degrees over 12 hours. However, since the yeast were at 52 in the starter and were pitched into 72 F wort, which was then cooled to 52, perhaps this was just too much for them??
Any suggestions on how to get the fermentation started, or am I just being impatient?
