I just finished my first keezer and in the process I couldn't pass up a few extra corny kegs at a good price. So now I am researching how to pressure ferment a lager at ale temps. Everything I've read and watched on YouTube says something to the effect, "Make a yeast starter, then pitch the yeast." But I cannot find any details at all on creating a starter for a lager yeast that will be pitched at ale temp for pressure fermenting. I assume one would want to do more than a simple re-hydration as I formerly did with ale yeast. I've also read (somewhere on this forum) that overpitching of lager yeast is necessary when doing pressure fermenting, but again no details, just "you need to overpitch".
I would like to do the starter the most simple and reliable way possible, without any extra equipment like a stir plate. My likely first attempt will use Safelager W34/70 and batch size will be about 4 gallons. My instinct is, I need to make a few cups of simple wort with boiled DME cooled to ferm temp, then pitch the (ferm temp) lager yeast and let it get started, then pitch into the waiting batch of wort. If I am correct, I only need to know how much water and DME, number of yeast packs to use, whether or not to decant the liquid before pitching, and roughly how long it will take for the starter to be viable/reliable. Besides that I think I know everything! Help!
I would like to do the starter the most simple and reliable way possible, without any extra equipment like a stir plate. My likely first attempt will use Safelager W34/70 and batch size will be about 4 gallons. My instinct is, I need to make a few cups of simple wort with boiled DME cooled to ferm temp, then pitch the (ferm temp) lager yeast and let it get started, then pitch into the waiting batch of wort. If I am correct, I only need to know how much water and DME, number of yeast packs to use, whether or not to decant the liquid before pitching, and roughly how long it will take for the starter to be viable/reliable. Besides that I think I know everything! Help!