Lager Yeast Starter

[BrewNoob2010]

I'm getting ready to brew my first Lager.

The folks at the beer supply store seemed to think a starter was not necessary, but I made one anyway. However, my starter is only 64 oz.

The concensus here seems to be that I need to make a much larger starter (at least a gallon).

I would assume that if I dissolve more DME I can just pitch my starter back into the larger batch once it is the appropriate temperature.

Any problems with doing this?

 

[jeffjm]

How big a batch are you making? Even 64 oz seems like a lot for 5 gallons. That's about 10% of a 5G batch and might alter whatever malt character or gravity you've carefully worked for.

Also, what kind of yeast are you using? If you're using the little vials from White Labs, you'll definitely need a starter. I use the larger wyeast packages that claim to have 100 billion cells, I forget how many milliliters they are, but they say 'no starter needed' for anything under 1060 OG. I've never found reason to disagree.

 

[Yooper]

I agree with the big lager starter camp. Lagers ferment cooler, and they just simply need more yeast to keep that "clean" lager flavor. Stressed yeast causes esters, which is totally out of place in a lager.

You especially need a big starter if you're going to pitch cold- which is my preference for lagers.

Consult this page: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html to see the correct amount of yeast that should be pitched. He's got other great information on yeast and yeast starters that is definitely worth a read also.

All that said- a 64 ounce starter is definitely better than no starter. I think I'd call it good at this point. When I make a lager, I make the biggest starter I can, and then put it in the fridge a couple of days before brewday. Then, on brewday, I start the brew and pull out the starter. I decant the spent wort, and then allow the yeast to start to warm up. When the yeast is 48 degrees, I pitch it into my 50 degree wort. It works great!

 

[hal2814]

When I do liquid larger yeasts, that's the size starter I make but I pitch in the 60's and start the drop to cold fermentation temps the next day. From what I understand, if you pitch at fermentation temp for a lager yeast, you need a bigger starter than that to avoid long lag times, but I'll let someone with experience in that sort of thing weigh in there.

 

[BrewNoob2010]

Thanks for the advice, will pitch this starter as is, but go bigger next time around.

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm a little unclear on exactly how to decant the starter. Any helpful links?

 

[BrewNoob2010]

Nevermind on the decanting question, found a thread that explained it.

 

[Shooter]

I just stepped my first lager starter up to two gallons last night. That's what the MrMalty calculator told me I needed for this batch. Sure is a lot of yeast and a lot of liquid to decant !! I'll let ferment for a couple of days and probably crash cool in another day or two.