Unsinking the Bismark Hellas

After hours of pouring over websites, and hints and tips from other
brewers nation/web-wide I have determined that the Bismark Hellas
probably sunk because of under-pitched yeast.

For a Lager to be "Great" it needs to start out its fermentation at
low temperatures which I attempted to do by pitching the yeast, and
getting the fermentors right into the fridge, and down to lagering
temps 45-55 degrees F. Starting the Lager at such low temeratures
will prevent unwanted esters from developing at all, leaving you with
a crisp dry lager beverage.

However the amount of yeast pitched needs to have quite a bit of
live/active yeast cells to begin fermentation right away. A single
vial of White Labs lager yeast only has about 100,000 yeast cells and
active viable cells in the neighborhood of 35-50,000 cells. Based on
what I have gleaned from other brewers and websites a 5 gal. batch of
lager needs approx 200,000 cells to begin a good fermentation at
lager temps.

The White labs vial actually say that the wort needs to remain at
room temperatures (70 degrees) until fermentation begins. Usually a
day or 2 on average. I in fact did not give the yeast this needed
warmth to begin it propagation, because I did not want and unwanted
esters to form, and did not give the yeast cells enough time to
divide and create a colony big enough to sustain good fermentation.
So by under pitching and putting the wort right into the lager fridge
the wort did not have a chance to get fermenting before the creepy
micro-organisms took over and probably killed the yeast.

So I am making a yeast starter based on tips from other brewers to
build up a large colony of yeast cells so I will have the number of
yeast cells needed to begin lagering right away. Basically I took 1lb
of DME plain light malt and added it to 1 gal of tap water. Cooked it
for about 15 minutes on the stove with the added DME at a boil and
then cooled it in a sink of cool water, till I could pitch the vial
of Marzen/Oktoberfest Munich Lager yeast. I put on an air-lock and it
is resting on the kitchen counter at room temp. This morning I
noticed very slow fermentation so I can guess that the yeast is
currently propagating the colony and dividing and making more yeast
cells.

I hope to have a nice big colony of lager yeast by Saturday when I
will try to recreate the batch that sunk last time, a double batch of
Bismark Hellas. I will also be adding more of the EXTRA-LIGHT DME as
the last batch never reached the target beginning SG of 1.040 and I
had to pitch in a pound of dextrose to reach the SG last time.

So this time I am going to buy an additional 2 lbs of Extra-light DME
and pitch that in with the rest of the ingredients. I will also try
to add Munich Malt to the grain bill if the brew store has some.

Check back next week to see what the Brewmaster comes up with and see
if the Bismark will again take to the brewing seas...