[wobdee]

Anyone have problems with this yeast? 2 out of 3 times I've had to repitch slurry from previous batch after 3 days of no activity and no gravity movement. I pitch 2 packs per 3 gal of 1.050 wort. Never had this problem with other lager yeasts. This last time the yeast was only a month old and I smacked them the day before, placed them in ferm chamber at 50 and there was a slight swelling so I thought they were good to go.

[BrodyR]

Mine tore off really quick but I pitched a lot of slurry from a local brewery so the high cell count could have been why.

[S. cerevisiae]

There is no need to incubate yeast at 50F.   All that does is prolong the amount of time that it takes for the culture to wake up.

[wobdee]

There is no need to incubate yeast at 50F.   All that does is prolong the amount of time that it takes for the culture to wake up.

OK, I thought maybe it should be kept at the same temp or a tad below ferment temp so as to not shock the yeast?

[S. cerevisiae]

Call me crazy, but I do not subscribe to the pitch low, and let the beer rise to fermentation temperature school of thought.  I used to do that, and all it did was delay the onset of fermentation.  I pitch five degrees hotter than my fermentation temperature, and let the batch drop down to my target temperature.  I brew some of the cleanest tasting beers of anyone that I know, so I am chalking that practice up to yet another brewing myth, or at least a brewing practice that does not apply to home brew size batches.    I pitch lagers at 16C/61F and ferment at 13C/55F.

[wobdee]

Thanks Mark, I'll give that a try.

[ynotbrusum]

I know an award winning lager Brewer in my club that does the same thing.  I just fear ester formation at warm temps.  Now I tend to pitch at fermentation temperature or just a couple degrees above it as it is dropping.  Old habits are just that....thanks for the input.

[S. cerevisiae]

The ester bogeyman is yet another thing that is unique to the home brewing community.  All beer contains esters, even lager beer.  You would not want to drink beer without any ester content.   Esters are usually not off-flavors.

Here's a professional brewer-level description for a lager strain:

"This yeast is a very popular and very flocculent lager strain from Northern Europe. It produces a beer with a good balance of flavors, particularly between the esters and higher alcohols, which makes a very drinkable beer. This yeast produces less sulfur compounds than most other flocculent strains."