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I'm hoping to brew tomorrow but I'm worried my starter never started. I smacked the pack on Wednesday morning and it still hadn't inflated by that evening. I decided to do my starter anyway as I'm short on time, but I still don't think anything has happened (no airlock activity, no krausen, no sediment), just cloudy wort.

Might still be working I guess. I might risk a gravity reading tonight to be sure, but to me it looks like a dud.

Or maybe lager yeast just behaves differently? It's my first time using one. Anyone have any ideas/opinions?

Tim,

What was the date on your smack pack? If I recall correctly, the folks at Noble Grape said, it normally takes 1 day for each month's age of the pack before any activity is noticed. I found this to be true for my last lager. The pack was 3 months old, and it took about 3 days to start. The smack pack had only slightly swelled before I pitched it, and I didn't do a starter.

However, once thing got going, all was fine. I have noticed that lager yeasts do tend to start a bit slower than ale yeasts. I have taken to leaving them at room temperature to start, about 22 C, then cooling them down, by moving them to the garage, after they get a good start.

I also tend to keep them in the primary for a long time, usually at least 2 months.

As always, your mileage may vary.

JLC

My last lager yeast (3 months old) took a good 2 days before I saw any activity.

If its a Schwarzbier you are brewing, I say heat that thing up to 80F and keep it there to make sure fermentation is going good!

Just kidding, and best of luck to anyone brewing for the Garrision competition.

This just happened to me for my Noble White beer when I brewed it in December (started Dec 5). It took 3.5 days for the first bubbles to come through the airlock after it had not risen at all after 4-5 hours post-smacking.

Patience was the hardest thing about my yeast not working. But everything turned out very tasty in the end.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll pick up an extra pack of yeast tomorrow, and pitch it and my starter together and then RDWHAHB. Hopefully it'll get going eventually.

Wish me luck!