lager homebrew help

[BigFoot]

i was going to pm smokinghole directly but decided to post instead.
But figured i should just post.


so i brewed up a rauchbier last friday(5 gal). pitched 1 vial of german lager yeast set the fermenter in the garage where its been about 43 degrees. no fermenting yet. as per my feedback on hbt.com i should of used a starter. lesson learned. so from what ive read 43 was way to cold and the yeast was way underpitched. ive been told i can set it aside at 50 and watch for fermenting. so thats been done, and when i mean theres no fermenting, theres no fermenting. no krausen whatsoever. so, my question is can i repitch dry german lager yeast??? andset it aside in 50 degrees?

 

[smokinghole]

You can add dry lager yeast no prob. It just won't taste like you originally intended. I suggest 2 packets of yeast.

For future reference check here: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html it gives you a yeast count as a 1mil yeast cells per ml wort per degree plato. So the yeast needed increases at the gravity increases and is roughly double that of ales when talking about lagers.

 

[BigFoot]

thanks bro, how should i use the packets, with warm water in a sanitized container then pitched?

 

[smokinghole]

Yes just follow the directions on the yeast packet for rehydrating. Otherwise you'll lose about 30-40% of the yeast due to osmotic shock from just tossing them into the beer.

 

[BigFoot]

was able to score 2 vials of lager yeast, pitched 'em and ill kyp...