I had been planning that my first brew after my time off would be a Pils. When it came time to start thinking about getting a yeast starter going I noticed just how old the package of lager yeast I had was. Seeing as how you generally want to pitch lager yeasts at a larger volume than most ales I was a touch worried. Smacking the Wyeast pack and seeing only minimal activity after a night certainly didn’t help this worry but I decided I’d go ahead with the first starter anyway (the plan is to step it up a couple of times). Well I’m happy to report after about 36 hours I’m seeing some good activity and am starting to feel a lot better about getting this yeast to where I want it to be for fermentation. It’s not going to be a very big Pils, it’ll be on the low end of the Bohemian Pilsner spectrum, so I think with a couple more step ups that yeast should be fired up and ready to go.
Now, to just plan the beers that come after that…
Just a Man with a Mash Paddle 