Lager starter

[spunxter]

Ive got a starter going 24 hrs now and there is no krausen or even bubbles on top. Did i maybe get some dead yeast? I always do ales but im getting rdy for my second lager ever now with the new fermentation chamber. Never had a problem before with the yeast in over two yrs. wlp 830 german lager yeast in 1000 ml starter with 100 grms extract on stir plate. Maybe this yeast dont krausen like the ale yeasts do?

 

[schematix]

how old is your yeast? i've had some 6+ month old tubes take 3 days to wake up.

 

[spunxter]

Well its been in my fridge for about two months and idk how long it sat at morebeer before they shipped it to me.

 

[spunxter]

Label says best before july 30 2016 so i guess ill give it a few days to give it a chance to come back. At least i know its possible to savage it thx.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I don't remember what the production date is on White Labs, but it's a good while before the best by date. You've got some old yeast there. That plus lager yeast, I'm not surprised it'd take a good while to wake up.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Also once you get that starter built up, consider cold crashing, decanting off the spent beer, and adding the yeast into a second starter. You're going to want a far bigger pitching rate for a lager (unless this is a 1 gal batch or something, and even then...) than you're going to get from old yeast in a 1L starter.

 

[schematix]

Just be patient with this one. I learned this lesson before. It'll kick off in a day or two.

I agree with the comment to build a larger starter too. Lagers take a beastly amount of cells to ferment clean.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

How is the color? Many times I will get little to no krausen on my starters but the color changes to a milky "creamed coffee". That is fermentation. I've also had older yeasts take as long as 36-48 hours to wake up in a starter. For lagers, I usually do at least 2 steps. Check YeastCalc or Mr. Malty for the correct amount.

 

[spunxter]

The starter never did krausen but dis change color from dark to creamy coffee color and smells ok. No sour or vinagery smells so im gonna cold crash it, dump some iny hydrometer and step it up if all seems well. Its just tbe first time i never saw activity from my yeasty critters before and it had me worried. Hopefully will get this lager brewed this weekend. I know some of u taste the starter but that i can barely stand the smell oif that most the time let alone stomach that.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Check this out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=591353

Twelve hours after it went on the stir plate it was done. No evidence of fermentation except the color.