wyeast pilsner problems

[brewsomerville]

ok guys i used some wyeast pilsner urquell in a smack pack. took it out of the fridge smacked it, left it out for 12 hours my house was about 75-80 degrees. i pitched in my brew wich was cooled wart already down to 50degrees in a tempature controlled fridge. its been two and a half days and no bubbling on the airlock should i be worried

 

[sudbuster]

ok guys i used some wyeast pilsner urquell in a smack pack. took it out of the fridge smacked it, left it out for 12 hours my house was about 75-80 degrees. i pitched in my brew wich was cooled wart already down to 50degrees in a tempature controlled fridge. its been two and a half days and no bubbling on the airlock should i be worried

This might be a dumb question, but did the smack pack expand well before you pitched it?

 

[-Dan-]

This might be a dumb question, but did the smack pack expand well before you pitched it?

This maybe a dumb response..but a lot of lager packs don't really expand especially within 12 hr

Was it an Activator or Propagator pack? Propagators are for starters more or less. For a lager I would make a starter anyway or use two smack packs for one batch. Yeast is just fine at room temperature, even at 80deg. Just give it another 1-2 days and see if anything happens, perhaps you will notice some activity that's about to take off (well, a little bit).

 

[sudbuster]

Originally Posted by brewsomerville
ok guys i used some wyeast pilsner urquell in a smack pack. took it out of the fridge smacked it, left it out for 12 hours my house was about 75-80 degrees. i pitched in my brew wich was cooled wart already down to 50degrees in a tempature controlled fridge. its been two and a half days and no bubbling on the airlock should i be worried

This maybe a dumb response..but a lot of lager packs don't really expand especially within 12 hr

Was it an Activator or Propagator pack? Propagators are for starters more or less. For a lager I would make a starter anyway or use two smack packs for one batch. Yeast is just fine at room temperature, even at 80deg. Just give it another 1-2 days and see if anything happens, perhaps you will notice some activity that's about to take off (well, a little bit).

At 75f, if it is not expanded in 12 hours, the yeast is very suspect and should be pitched to about 500ml of oxygenated wort. If there is a krausen, then transfer to 1000ml flask with 500ml wort. At krausen begin cooling slowly to about 5 degrees of wort temp and pitch the flask. Even if the pack was good, it is hardly enough. The yeast had the P*** shocked out of it going from 75f to 50f intantly. Good luck. Hope it finnaly starts up for you.

 

[BigNastyBrew]

I have been doing lagers all Summer. I never expect Krausen, bubbling, or swimmig colonies for at LEAST 3 days. Most of the time I don't see it until well into the 4th day.

You have activity in there (probably) you just can't see it because the wort is so cold. The cold wort holds more CO2 in solution so it doesn't escape.

Then, of course, there's the yeast issue. Have you considered making appropriate sized starters based on your proposed OG and the mfg date on the yeast pack? I would just be concerned in general when just pitchng a pack or a vial. In my opinion, just pitching the package risks heavier ester production and/or low attenuation.

 

[Denny]

ok guys i used some wyeast pilsner urquell in a smack pack. took it out of the fridge smacked it, left it out for 12 hours my house was about 75-80 degrees. i pitched in my brew wich was cooled wart already down to 50degrees in a tempature controlled fridge. its been two and a half days and no bubbling on the airlock should i be worried

Sounds like you didn't make a starter, so you dramatically underpitched.

 

[oloroso27]

If you aren't planning on making a starter, you'll need to use 4 wyeast smack packs to get the proper pitching rate in a lager. Check out Mr. Malty's pitching rate calculator: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
If I'm brewing a lager (OG 1.050ish) I'll use four packs every time (I haven't gotten into making starters)