Lager Lag Time

[MNHopHead]

Hey y'all,

Another one for ya:

What's a "standard" lag time for a lager yeast? Specifically Wyeast 2001, Urquell Lager. It's been 24 hours at 56 degrees with no bubbling yet. The smack pack didn't fully expand over the course of about 4 hours, could this have something to do with it?

Thanks so much!

~MNHopHead

 

[Revvy]

Lagers can be even slower than the 72 hour lagtime that we sometimes see with ales yeast. AND you may never see a single bubble either or it may have a slow rate, so please don't ever go by airlock bubbling.....For Lagers OR ales....airlocks are vents, not fermentation gauges...

 

[certaut]

relax if it shelled even a little it's probably OK, give it another day or 2,, then worry

 

[kcinpdx]

Don't worry. Lagers seem to take forever, and if you only used one smack pack it could be longer. My last one had zero bubbles. After about 5 days I tooke a reading and sure enough it was doing fine.

 

[remilard]

Depends on what you mean by lag time. If you mean until krausen is visible or c02 is escaping (the former being a symptom of the latter) then it is longer than ales both because colder liquids can dissolve more c02 and because yeast activity is slower.

When I brew lagers I try to pitch 1.5 million cells per ml per degree plato at 44 F and oxygenate to approximately 12 ppm. Lag time to low krausen is reliably 24 hours give or take a few hours. Pitching a smack pack you probably need 4-6 doublings to get to where I started which will add a day or two.

 

[petep1980]

How much did you pitch?

BTW when I use lager yeast my smack packs rarely get they swole on.

 

[MNHopHead]

I really appreciate all the replies! I pitched one smack pack, 100 billion ...

 

[jmhart]

Like Revvy said, lagers can take longer than 72 hours to show any signs...and they may not show any signs of life in the airlock at all.

I brewed up a lager a couple weeks back using Saflager 34/70. That sucker seemed like it would never get to work. And then I forgot about it for a few days, checked back in the fridge, and boom, a large hunk of fermentation was done.

 

[SwampassJ]

I really appreciate all the replies! I pitched one smack pack, 100 billion ...

You should of made a starter. I took one pack into a 1L starter, decanted and pitched that into another 3L starter. It still took 40 hours before I saw the Krausen begin to form.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[petep1980]

Assuming standard gravity you need like 23 billion cells minimum.

 

[Bombo80]

I just brewed a Hofbrauhaus lager on Monday, and I had full activity after 48 hours. I used the Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager yeast. I had chilled my wort to 68*, and have the fermenter sitting in the basement at 60*. I have only had one problem smack pack, and that was a few years ago.

 

[andrew300]

I really appreciate all the replies! I pitched one smack pack, 100 billion ...

You only pitched 100 billion if the smack pack was made that day. You have to take account of the date manufactured and calculate viability. Use some pitching rate calculator to determine the correct amount to pitch. Lagers need double the yeast as ales because of the low fermentation temperature.

 

[JoshRH]

So I understand that there is a longer lag time than ales when it comes to lagers, just curious if I should be worried? I pitched my yeast ~50 hours ago and and used my airstone and air pump for 20 min to oxygenate. I am using 3 dry packs of Mangrove Jack's M76 Bavarian Lager yeast. My OG was 1.067. should I see a large Visible krausen like with ales? This is my first lager and I am fermenting in my kegerator and had set the temp controller to 48F yesterday when I installed it, and today I bumped it to 50F. As it is in the garage, I checked on it yesterday morning and I noticed that the temp was at 36F due to being so cold outside and that was when I decided to install the temp controller. Temperature has been steady since installed, Will the yeast come back in to suspension? Is it anything to worry about?

 

[JoshRH]

I am guessing I have somewhere 540 billion cells.