Yeast Starter Advice on First Lagers

[eluterio]

So, Im brewing in the next few weeks two lagers. One on one day and one on the next. Im trying to come up with the best to make two lager starters with minimal equipment.

I have on hand:
1- gallon glass jug
1- growler 64 oz
1- 1000ml Erlenmeyer flask

I under stand the pitch rate and how much DME needed and I understand im going to do a step up. Making one lager no problem but two back to back im not sure if I have enough equipment to do this in. So I am thinking about making one now and one next week and keeping the first one in the fridge until needed. So it goes as follows:

Make a 2.5 lt starter stir by shaking in gallon jug.
36 or 48 hours later put in fridge let it floc out.
set out to warm up.
Make another 2 lt starter and poor into gallon jug.
36 or 48 hours later place in fridge and let floc.
decant and store in growler in fridge for a week with airlock. Not sure if I can use foil on this point(advice would be greatly appreciated here)

Start second starter same process but not so worried about time by the end of this one Ill be brewing.

So im concerned about leaving the lagered yeast at room temp during the first step and 2nd step. Do I need to have the temp close to lager temps?
Also concerned about leaving it for a week before pitching it. Will I be ok with letting it sit in fridge for a week and still have enough yeast cells?

Anything helps

 

[Indytruks138]

You can def make lager starters at room temperatures, won't make a difference.

And letting it sit in the fridge won't kill or reduce the yeast count over a week, it just means it won't be as active and might take a little longer to kick off, but you will still have the right count so you should be fine.

 

[progmac]

usually you start smaller and go bigger when stepping up.
what is the gravity of your lager?

try this:
1) make 1.25 liter starter, shake occassionally
2) add 2 liters to finished starter, shake occassionally
3) cold crash and decant

that should get you in the ballpark for a normal gravity lager

 

[eluterio]

You can def make lager starters at room temperatures, won't make a difference.

And letting it sit in the fridge won't kill or reduce the yeast count over a week, it just means it won't be as active and might take a little longer to kick off, but you will still have the right count so you should be fine.

Thanks, this was one thing that I was really concerned about. When I make ales and starters they tend to be more than enough yeast cells that im not concerned with.

 

[eluterio]

usually you start smaller and go bigger when stepping up.
what is the gravity of your lager?

try this:
1) make 1.25 liter starter, shake occassionally
2) add 2 liters to finished starter, shake occassionally
3) cold crash and decant

that should get you in the ballpark for a normal gravity lager

Gravity for both are 1.049 so not too high.

Can I decant from the smaller or do I need to add the 2L on top of it. I just want to make sure I have enough room.

 

[aryoung1980]

I decant when I step up my lager starters. I generally do a 1.5L first step, cold crash, decant, add 3L wort, cold crash, decant, pitch.

I ferment my starters at room temperature but I pitch it at my fermentation temperature, generally around 50F.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[eluterio]

Thanks for the replies im glad for hbt

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[eluterio]

Last question on storage, what are your thoughts on letting it sit with just foil on top for a week, or should I just decant and store into a mason jar and use a lid?? Again this will only be for a week.

 

[Indytruks138]

It may not be adviseable as the cold crashing process does create a mini vacuum and pull in air, but I have always just used the foil on top of my erlenmeyer and never had any infection issues.

 

[eluterio]

It may not be adviseable as the cold crashing process does create a mini vacuum and pull in air, but I have always just used the foil on top of my erlenmeyer and never had any infection issues.

using the foil Just during cold crashing or storing it at cold temps to wait and pitch for a week? As you can tell im worried about getting an infection and want to avoid this as much as possible. Making my first lagers and if Im going to put the time and effort into them I dont want to screw them up.

 

[Indytruks138]

using the foil Just during cold crashing or storing it at cold temps to wait and pitch for a week? As you can tell im worried about getting an infection and want to avoid this as much as possible. Making my first lagers and if Im going to put the time and effort into them I dont want to screw them up.

I've stored for a week with just foil. Again, its probably best to have a true seal, if you are worried they make large stoppers and you can throw on an airlock, but I've never had trouble with it.

 

[eluterio]

Thanks for the info, just wanted to make sure that its been done before infection free. I have to get started on my starter today!

 

[aryoung1980]

I've also stored in the fridge for about a week. However, I've never used foil.

If you have a mason jar, I would sanitize that, decant your starter, and pour the slurry into the jar with a lid.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[BigFloyd]

Nothing wrong with cold crashing (which for lager starters can take two full days) and leaving it sit cold with the foil on 4-5 more days. Bacteria don't have legs to allow them to sneak up under the foil and into the flask. I'd spray the foil again with StarSan just before putting it away to crash just to be safe.

 

[eluterio]

So, last night I did my stater and did the calculation provided. I started with 1.6 litters but after an 11 min boil I ended up with 1L and a gravity 1.062. I hope I didnt screw this up when I added top of water to it and got my 1.6L and the gravity down to 1.043. I didnt want to pitch at 1.062 afraid I would stress the yeast out and create problems. Any thoughts?

 

[mjohnson]

You did exactly right. Also, you don't really need to boil the starters for that long. Just bring to a boil and ensure the extract is dissolved. A minute or 2 is fine.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Important!

Match your starter temperature to the wort temperature before pitching! 60 F works well to get the batch rolling.

Secondly, you can get the first one rolling, transfer it when the second batch is ready for pitching if you are brewing a week later (again match temps, and it can be colder than 60 in this case). Saves the trouble of using to starters and or 2 yeasts.

 

[eluterio]

You did exactly right. Also, you don't really need to boil the starters for that long. Just bring to a boil and ensure the extract is dissolved. A minute or 2 is fine.

Your kidding me right?? Ive read on here and other places to boil for at least 10 mins. This make life much easier for me! Thanks and appreciate the feed back.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Your kidding me right?? Ive read on here and other places to boil for at least 10 mins. This make life much easier for me! Thanks and appreciate the feed back.

10 minutes is necessary to assure that all the baddies are dead.

 

[Indytruks138]

I always boil for 10 minutes. I have never seen the kind of boil off you describe though, 1.6 liters down to 1 liter. Did you use a large pot with a ton of surface area?

 

[mjohnson]

10 minutes is necessary to assure that all the baddies are dead.

For purifying water for drinking, a rolling boil for 1 minute is enough. When you factor the time ramping to boiling and the time while chilling, it should be enough.

Most real baddies are killed in far less than a minute.
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/3/355/F2.expansion.html

By all mean, boil for as long as you like - it won't hurt anything. I haven't had any infections - but maybe you know something I don't and I'm just getting lucky.

 

[eluterio]

The pot was an 8 qt ss pot that my wife uses. I had it rolling boil for about 11 mins. Not sure why I lost soo much, next time I will just compensate or not do such an aggressive boil.