[Robert]

Goose and Denny,

Some of the conventional wisdom about lager pitching seems to revolve around the idea that the early growth stages of fermentation are where esters are produced.  So the idea seems to be, pitch a lot and pitch cold so growth is limited.

But so many around here seem to have no trouble with pitching warmer, or pitching less yeast, and that along with my experiments with pressure fermentation, where the key element comes later in the process, has me questioning this.   I wonder if maybe some precursors are produced at the early stage, but low temperature or other factors later on can prevent esterification.

I'm going to leave the pressure fermentation behind for a while (to slow things down so I can try spunding,) and am trying to improve my chilling capacity.   But I just may worry less about pitching temperature and pitch rate in light of your experience.

[hopfenundmalz]

Like Denny, Wen making a starter, I use the SNS approach, regardless of ale or lager; however I will many times just make a 3 gallon light lager beer and pitch that slurry into a 5 gallon batch and then step up to a ten gallon batch.  If making a high gravity lager, I will almost always pitch recently harvested  (same day typically) slurry.

Having toured German lager breweries with tubs of harvested yeast waiting to be pitched, I do that too. I have made 5 gallons of Leichtbier (1.032 OG), as the starter for a 10gallon batch.

I still have to try a SNS for a lager. The starter is a big % of the volume for a lager. I might try that for a Helles. Thinking as I type, it would work for the Leichtbier just fine.

Only if you subscribe to the notion that a lager takes a larger starter.  I haven't found that to be the case.

If found a pitch at 45-46F I think it would.

I sat in on the HomebrewCon presentation on 34/70 being pitched and fermented warm. Their optimal pitch rate was 1g/liter, or roughly 2 packs for 5 gallons (19 liters). IIRC, They looked at pitch rate in the study. I'm tempted to pitch 34/70 warm, and ferment warm, following their pitch rate. Maybe split a batch and pitch one pack in one, two packs in the other.

They also pitched dry, which is what I do now.