Re- Pitched lager slurry slow or non existent start

[Nick_D]

Hi all. I would be most grateful for some opinions on my situation.

On Sunday morning I racked a previous lager off for lagering in my chest freezer, and saved + washed the yeast from the yeastcake (saflager w-34/70), then put it in my fermentation fridge at 48F. Later that same day I brewed a Bohemian Pilsner doing a triple decoction for the first time (small batch - 2.5 gal), chilled wort to 50F and pitched slurry straight from fridge after shaking wort vigorously to aerate.
41 hrs later and there are minimal signs of any fermentation....only some scattered groups of bubbles (see pic) which don't seem to be doing too much.

Do you think it will get going? As far as the amount of yeast I pitched, it was the whole amount I collected, minus the trub I seperated whilst washing. This is the first yeast re-pitch I've tried.

I saved a small jar of yeast which I have spinning on the stir plate with some DME and a little of the wort in the hopes I can get a starter out of it should my batch be dead in the water with my first re-pitching attempt.

What do you guys think?

Cheers!

 

[flars]

Has the wort warmed to the optimum fermentation temperature for the yeast? If not the yeast is probably taking a little more time to begin growth.

 

[Nick_D]

I left it at 48F (9C) for the first 37 or so hours, as that is what I fermented my last lager at (although in that instance, I pitched 2 dry packets into less than 2.5 gallons - so a bit overkill, but it did get going really quick, even at that low temp)
I upped the temperature setting to 50F a couple of hours ago to see if that would help things.
Saflager specifies "fermentation temperature :9-22°C (48.2-71.6°F) ideally 12-15°C (53.6-59°F)"
So I admit, I'm trying to get away with being on the low side of things...I'm worried about esters etc with the higher temps.
Cheers

 

[flars]

I've never used that yeast so I can't comment on flavor production at different fermentation temperatures. You may find some reviews of this yeast that will help you get the flavor profile you want to end with.

 

[Nick_D]

thanks, I'll see what I can dig up!

I'm letting it rise to 53 - 54 F to see if I can get things moving along. Hopefully this is an ok idea? I figure, better to get it rolling, and have a little roughness potentially in the finished product, than to have it sit around until something else unfriendly takes a hold of it! Will see how we go....

 

[Nick_D]

Thanks for the help Flars.

Raised the temp a little as I said in my last message to the yeast's optimum temp as stated on their site, and now I've got krausen going crazy!
Hopefully no off flavours from the sluggish start?
Figured I'd be ok pitching so cool with the harvested yeast...

thanks again.