Beer Forum

For those that use a stir plate, do you put your stir plate in the fridge so you can build up your starter in the 50s rather than at room temp? Haven't gotten my stir plate yet, but this question has come to mind.

From what I have seen and heard, no, just build your starter at room temp.....all you are doing at this point is increasing the cell count of the yeast....not making beer, so temps are not that critical for making a lager at this point!

I do, I start my lager starters a couple days before brew day. I have it sit at what temp I want to pitch at.

To answer my own question I contacted White Labs, their response was to build the starter at room temperature to encourage cell growth.

I would think that for lager starters can be fermented a bit cooler than ale starters would be. If you run an ale starter at 70-75 degrees, than a lager starter could be done around 65-70 degrees for cell growth.

In an episode of the Session with Dan Gordon, he mentioned that they propagate at fermentation temp (9C?). He said they saw mutations when it was done at room temp. They are also stepping-up way more than we are as homebrewers.