Beer Forum

did a triple decoction Dunkel on Tuesday. Collected 17gals 1.054, chilled to 74f and oxygenated, dropped to 65 and pitched
THREE smack packs of Bavarian Lager that had swollen nicely and dropped temp to 53f over a few hours.

YESTERDAY, I dropped in another THREE MORE smack packs as I had no activity and lagers need HUGE starters.

Today, I have some activity but not much. It's almst 48hrs since initial pitch, should I be concerned? 1st run at a Lager .

>EDIT<

Suddenly I remember- 1,2 3 for Ales and 2,3,4 for Lagers. It's still an infant. I bet it's rockin b4 bedtime...
S~

Well, it will probably ferment out and is just taking a long time to get going since there isn't much yeast and it is cold. 48hr is kind of long to see nothing, but not ridiculous for a lager. Did you re-oxygenate when you pitched the second lot of yeast? More oxygen will cause the growth phase to extend and delay the normal signs of fermentation, so you might have added more delay by adding more O2 (if you did).

Did you have the yeast temperature the same as the wort it was going into so as not to shock them when they went in?

Additionally, using the calculator on Mr Malty, it looks like you were way under pitching. 17gal of 1.054 wort for a lager needs 13 smack packs without a starter. This might explain your long growth phase/lag?

ALL good points Nate;

Wort temp was a probably 10f colder than smack packs, easy.
No add'l o2 added

to be fair, it's a 1/2ID blowoff tube which is WAY bigger than a bubbler.

Gonna connect the yeast collector when I rack, and pitch that in the next one.