What is the shortest lag time you have experienced?

[True_Sycko]

I just brewed a dampfbier last night and pitched onto a WLP380 yeast cake from a roggenbier I made 2 weeks ago. When I made the roggenbier I had a lag time of about 3 hours, which was the fastest I have ever had. I am normally in the 12-24 hour range, even 36 hours occasionally. So, last night/this morning, I pitched around midnight and checked on it before I went to bed around 1am and it was already bubbling away. And I don't mean a few bubbles, but a continuous machine gun effect . This is by far the fastest I have ever had and pretty excited about it.

So. what was the shortest lag time you have ever had?

 

[Yooper]

That was probably a huge overpitch, and your yeast skipped the reproductive phase. It can happen fast when you do that, especially the wort is warm.

Keep an eye on the temperature, because a "hot" fermentation can get really hot, and you definitely want to stay under 70 degrees with that yeast.

 

[True_Sycko]

That was probably a huge overpitch, and your yeast skipped the reproductive phase. It can happen fast when you do that, especially the wort is warm.

Keep an eye on the temperature, because a "hot" fermentation can get really hot, and you definitely want to stay under 70 degrees with that yeast.

I figured I overpitched like crazy. I don't have high hopes for the beer, just wanted to try something different. I never pitched right onto a yeast cake before either, so I didn't know if I should have removed some or not. I was able to get the wort down to about 75ish and the basement is about 65. I was loosely using the this link. https://byo.com/stories/item/530-dampfbier-style-profile. It mentions fermenting at around 77 for a very fast fermentation, then racking to a keg within 2 or 3 days, taking krausen with it and letting is secondary for 2 weeks under pressure. I figured overpitching and a little warm wort would help this along. Don't know whats going to happen honestly.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

shortest lag time was no lag at all, well maybe 30 minutes, timed everything perfect, temps were all the same, lots of oxygen, added yeast nutrient twice once in the starter and also in the boil, Nottingham yeast was blowing the top in 12 hours

 

[catdaddy66]

Fastest I have ever had a fermentation show airlock activity was 4-5 hours. I was happy!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kanzimonson]

I'm worried if it's less than about 10 hours, or over 30 hours

 

[catdaddy66]

The few I've had start in under ten hours all came out really well. My brother just had to try and repitch after he saw no activity at 40 hours. By the time he had the new starter ready about 10 hours later the primary was bubbling like crazy! I had to laugh...


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Pkrd]

I never pitched right onto a yeast cake before either, so I didn't know if I should have removed some or not.

1/3 to 1/2 is plenty.

 

[Calder]

3 hours is my quickest. And that was way too quick for me.

I get concerned if I see airlock activity quicker than 8 hours. If it starts too soon, the ferment is happening with old yeast. This can lead to incomplete ferment, and will also produce less yeast esters.

There may be other effects, since the ferment is with old yeast rather than newly reproduced yeast.

 

[kh54s10]

I guess my shortest was in the 3-4 hour range. It was a properly sized starter. I usually do not see when fermentation starts since I put the fermenter into the chamber and close it up. Sometimes it is a couple of days before I look inside to see what's happening.

After a few years now I do not obsess over the process. I do what I always do. Set it and forget it. 2-3 weeks later (or longer when I get lazy) check and keg it.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I find if I pitch huge amounts, or pitch highly active yeast (either top cropping or pitching starters at high krausen) I get airlock pressure within a couple hours and then noticeable activity starting maybe 6-10 hours. And highly active fermentation within 24. When I cold crash a starter and decant off, pitch harvested slurry, or pitch without a starter (only in session beers) it's usually more like 12-16 hours to see airlock pressure and 20-24 hours to get noticeable activity, and then active fermentation in maybe 36 hours.

 

[rhys333]

Just this evening I'm seeing first signs of activity within 4 hours, and this from month old harvested yeast I direct pitched without starter. Followed the Mr. Malty guidelines for thick yeast with no trub (i.e.: the most conservative amount), but still seems like a slight over-pitch.

 

[True_Sycko]

1/3 to 1/2 is plenty.

Thanks. I guess you live and learn. Oh well, I am sure it's still beer, and hopefully drinkable beer to. All I spent on it was about $14 for some grains as I had the hops.

What I found interesting is when I made a starter (using Mr. Malty) for the ~# month old WLP380, it went like normal, except that I didn't decant (didn't plan enough time). When I pitched the yeast into the roggenbier I had airlock signs within a couple hours and visible signs maybe 6 hours later. Just wonder if this is some mutant super strain hefe yeast . I usually experience normal lag times, but yea this is the first time I have ever seen it go this fast. I guess I am not too worried. The roggenbier is in the keg but seems like a banana bomb (mixed feelings), so I thought by overpitching the dampfbier, that maybe it would suppress some of the banana phenols. I guess we shall see.

 

[dnslater]

Lately I have been chilling my wort down around 60 before pitching and letting it warm slightly, with my basement being mid-60's. Even with this, I have recently used Nottingham in a stout and a brown, and both times the Nottingham took off and was showing aggressive activity in 4-6 hours. I re-hydrate it but don't use nutrients or anything.

 

[kombat]

Shorter lag time != Better beer

Many important esters and flavour compounds are produced during the lag and reproductive phases. Speeding through those phases doesn't mean a better beer - it means you're short-circuiting the yeast's natural cycle. If my airlock was rocking within 3 hours of pitching, I wouldn't be "excited" - I'd be worried.

12-16 hours for a krausen to form is ideal.

 

[beergolf]

Shorter lag time != Better beer

Many important esters and flavour compounds are produced during the lag and reproductive phases. Speeding through those phases doesn't mean a better beer - it means you're short-circuiting the yeast's natural cycle. If my airlock was rocking within 3 hours of pitching, I wouldn't be "excited" - I'd be worried.

12-16 hours for a krausen to form is ideal.

I agree with kombat. I don't understand this obsession with having fermentaion start super fast. A lot of the flavors are developed in the lag phase. So if you pitch the proper amount of healthy yeast you will be good.

I usually pitch and don't even bother checking it until the next day.

 

[rhys333]

I agree with kombat. I don't understand this obsession with having fermentaion start super fast. A lot of the flavors are developed in the lag phase. So if you pitch the proper amount of healthy yeast you will be good.

I usually pitch and don't even bother checking it until the next day.

I've never been totally sure... What defines 'lag phase' specifically? Is it no visible activity at all or does it include visible build up of yeast? I'm not talking full-on krausen, just visible cell growth on the surface... The yeast version of a teenage mustache, if you will.

 

[hannibalmdq]

I've never been totally sure... What defines 'lag phase' specifically? Is it no visible activity at all or does it include visible build up of yeast? I'm not talking full-on krausen, just visible cell growth on the surface... The yeast version of a teenage mustache, if you will.

The lag phase of yeast is kind of a misnomer. Basically when you pitch stored and dormant yeast into new wort, they immediately start the uptake of oxygen and nutrients before beginning division. Then they explode into a massive fury of cell division and byproducts. Generally, people refer to the lag phase as the time before they see signs of active fermentation (bubbling, cloudiness, etc) in their primary.

I'm actually kind of suspicious that overly short lag time itself is a bad thing. Overpitching may or may not be a bad thing because of the suppression of esters due to not reproducing as much, but the yeast start doing things as soon as they hit wort.

When you pitch rehydrated dry yeast, you're not even going through the uptake phase. Those suckers are packaged with lipids and nutrients and ready to go to town. Some (pro)brewers scrape krausening yeast directly into a new batch of wort. Those cells surely aren't in need of any intermediary steps before they start dividing.

Anyway, without getting into that discussion any further I'd say use your tastebuds as the final verdict and not the "lag" time. If you massively overpitching and that's what causing the bubbles so soon, yeah, your beer might suffer depending on what ester profile your looking for. Also, the long term health of your yeast will suffer by continual overpitching. If you're fermenting too warm for your strain, you might also get some bubbles really fast.

But bubbles by themselves, I'm not so sure that is bad, in and of itself.

 

[hannibalmdq]

That was probably a huge overpitch, and your yeast skipped the reproductive phase. It can happen fast when you do that, especially the wort is warm.

I don't believe yeast are capable of skipping the reproductive phase in brewing, except possibly in a truly massive overpitch situation.

They will reproduce less because the larger starting quantity of yeast has access to the same amount of sugar. This may lead to suppressing many of the byproducts of reproduction that we consider pleasing (esters and such).