Did I break my yeast?!

[SenorWanderer]

I made a 1 gallon starter for WY2206 Bavarian Lager with 2 smack packs to reach the correct pitch rate as calculated by Mr. Malty. Both smack packs swelled as usual. I fermented for 4 days at room temperature with o2 aeration to start, intermittent shaking, and a boost of o2 12 hours after I pitched. The starter fermented normally. After 4 days I put it in the keezer to drop it to pitch temp, decanted the beer and pitched onto a baltic porter at 53F. After 72 hours there was no activity. I bought a new pack, smacked, and pitch that onto the wort at room temperature after rousing the wort with a good stir and a new injection of o2. After 36 hours I have krausen forming in the carboy.

The question is what went wrong with the first batch of yeast? I knew ahead of time that 2206 can be a slow starter but 72 hours of no activity after pitching a BIG, healthy starter is a bit long. The ONLY thing that could have gone wrong that I can think of is cooling the starter too quickly, but it didn't freeze, so at worst the yeast went dormant? Other then that I don't see a problem with my procedure. Are the first yeasts waking up now or is the activity from the second yeasts alone? If it's just the second pitch then I need to go to the LHBS to buy about 4 more smack packs

 

[ChshreCat]

Did you take a hydrometer reading, or were you just using krausen as a sign that the yeast was working?

 

[SenorWanderer]

no reading yet. I had airlock activity after 24 hours (last night) and krausen forming this morning. so yes, just the krausen as an indicator.

 

[ChshreCat]

It may have been working. You can ferment for quite a while without any krausen.

 

[SenorWanderer]

It may have been working. You can ferment for quite a while without any krausen.

I see what you were getting at now. Wouldn't I have had at least some airlock activity, even without krausen, if the yeast were doing anything? There wasn't the slightest bit of activity for the first 72 hours. Is there a stage in the yeast life cycle where they're active but not producing CO2?

 

[ChshreCat]

I have fermenters that leak a little bit and I'll go a whole fermentation without a single bubble in my airlock. The hydrometer is the only way to really know what's going on in there.

No worries. The worst case here is that you wasted some money on the third pack of yeast and your beer will still come out fine.

 

[SenorWanderer]

thanks for the help on this ChshreCat. I ended up just leaving it alone after pitching the 3rd pack. I haven't taken a reading but i've had really steady activity for the last couple days. The only way I think i'll ever have an answer on this one is to wait for fermentation to finish. if it gets down to an acceptable FG then obviously the original pitch was just slow to start. if not, then i know that something went wrong with the first yeast pitch. there's no way 1 pack will finish off 6gal of 1.082 wort.

 

[ChshreCat]

While underpitching can lead to a balky ferment, that's not a given. When you pitch yeast, it will multiply into a larger colony of yeast if it's given enough oxygen. So it's not a matter of one pack worth of yeast fermenting out your brew. No way to know for sure if it was the second pack of yeast that multiplied and started working on the beer, or if the first dose just took a little while to get started. Either way, it's goin' now.