Lager yeast not kicking off?:(

[echosierra1]

Hello all. Brand new to this hobby as my wife bought me a mr beer kit for a present. Its kind of a cheesy kit but I feel that I should use it for a bit to learn and also cause she bought it for me.
Well here is the deal. I have a mr beer Mexican lager kit and an American lager kit. I didn't want to use that ale yeast for a lager so I bought the wyeast bohemian lager and wyeast American lager smack packs. I followed the direction the Homebrew store man told me as follows.
1. Smack pack and knead a couple of times.
2. Let it sit until room temp.
3. Don't worry about waiting to swell "when it's room temp, pitch it"

That's what I did 48 hrs ago. At this stage there hasent been but a couple little bubbles at the water line on either fermenter. I have my temp controller set to hold 51f or 10.6c .
Should I pitch another pack in each or wait longer?

 

[paraordnance]

I say just wait it out. Its possible that yeast was old (manufacturing date?) and it takes a while to kick off. If the yeast is not fresh it is best to make a yeast starter to proof it and grow some fresh yeast. My lagers start within 12-24 hours this way on 5 gal batch. You should be ok

 

[echosierra1]

Hey thanks for the quick reply!!! Put me at ease for the holiday
I had the feeling the clerk was a little lax about it and I should have made a starter. Lesson learned. He also told me to ferment for two weeks then bring to room temp for two days then bottle and lager at 42 ish. That sound about right.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Yeah, if the yeast was about 6 months old you didn't pitch enough yeast even for a mr. beer kit. Wait it out. Also, lagers wont produce a big top side krausen like a standard ale yeast