Yeast Starter Paranoia!

I made a small starter batch last night. It was about 18oz pre-boil and 1/2 cup DME. I added 1 vial of London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Liquid Yeast. I shook the hell out of it, and put it in a cabinet overnight. I checked it a couple hours after pitching, and it looked inactive. I checked this morning, about 12hrs after pitching, and it looked about the same. It's very opaque, almost like coffee w/ cream. Is this normal? I'm planning on adding it to my Oatmeal Stout batch this Saturday.

coffee with cream color is good. If it was bad, it would still be a darker color and there would be a layer of dead yeast on the bottom. Keep shaking/agitating it, it wont hurt it.

But without looking at it I cant say for sure. I use an erlenmeyer flask which makes it very easy to see tiny bubble running up the inside.

How much yeast appears to be on the bottom? Did you use an airlock or just some foil?

I sterilized the lid and put it on all the way, then eased it off just a bit to leave space for escaping gas. The above photo was taken about 14hrs after pitching.

What are you expecting to see? The purpose of making a starter is to increase the number yeast cells. As long as the yeast are multiplying, they will be in suspension. They aren't going to produce a krausen or CO2 at this stage.

Excellent. Yeah, I was kinda expecting a krausen or something like that. Just worried because I've never tried this before. Dry yeast has been mostly worry free. I guess I need to RDWHAHB.

david_42 said:

What are you expecting to see? The purpose of making a starter is to increase the number yeast cells. As long as the yeast are multiplying, they will be in suspension. They aren't going to produce a krausen or CO2 at this stage.

Click to expand...

I had some pacman the other day blow off/through the fermentation lock on a starter......i had to rig up a growler/mini-blow-off tube until it settled down after about 12 hours. Is that to be considered rare, or is it par for the course w/ pacman?

Before I started using a stirplate, I always had CO2 bubbles present. I use 800ml of water and 1 cup DME.

It is not uncommon for one to witness a range of activity in their starters from minimal (is anything happening?) to violent (holy sh*t batman get me a blow-off tube!)

Aeration, and a temp's 70-75 work best for growing Ale yeast. Now lager yeast on the other hand...

I pitched my second starter last night. I think I chilled it too much, and/or my apartment is too cold now, because it's not coffee w/ cream colored this time. When I woke up this morning, it was dark and had sediment in the bottom. I shook it up again, and three hours later, it's still relatively dark. The temp in the apartment is about 65º, as opposed to about 74º last time I made a starter.

This one was White Labs WLP500 Trappist. When I bought it, I noticed that it said "Best Before: Nov-16-06" on the label, and I commented on this to the woman at the LHBS. She said it should still be okay, but if it didn't work, they would reimburse me or give me a replacement or whatever.

Thoughts? Is it just too cold, or could the yeast all be dead? Should I try warming it up, or just wait until brew day on Wednesday and see what happens? The paranoia never dies!

Here's a picture taken 24hrs after pitching the starter:


It's looked like that pretty much the whole time. I shook it vigorously upon pitching, and also about 12hrs after that. I'm worried about pitching dead or weak yeast into my next beer, which is going to be a big trappist ale.

Hmmm..... I don't have experience with this, but I would think after 24hrs you would see some fermentation activity. I defer to those who know more than I.

Is it possible that the yeast has propagated and fermented while you weren't looking? Is that sediment in the bottom of the bottle or is that just a reflection from the surface it's sitting on?

idk... I've never done starters and have always been fine. That definitly doesnt look active. What was the temperture of the wort when you pitched? If it was too high you could have killed the yeast. Did you add any tap water to that wort or airate it any other way than shaking? Is there C02 being created? Cap it for an hour and room temp, then open. If you hear blow off you are ok.

Rocket said:

Hmmm..... I don't have experience with this, but I would think after 24hrs you would see some fermentation activity. I defer to those who know more than I.

Is it possible that the yeast has propagated and fermented while you weren't looking? Is that sediment in the bottom of the bottle or is that just a reflection from the surface it's sitting on?

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It's sediment. The first time I did the starter, the yeast was suspended for awhile before settling out like that.

I'm certain the wort wasn't too hot when I pitched. In fact, I think it was overchilled. I'd set my little sauce pan in an ice bath in the sink, and when I poured it into the little growler, it was quite cold, I'd say in the 40s-50s. I tried warming it up in a hot water bath (I know, ridiculous, right?) before pitching, but I'm pretty sure the wort has been in the low to mid 60s the whole time. The last one was in the 70s the whole time. I'm afraid the yeast never warmed up enough to activate.

you can also shock the yeast by pitching into too cold of temps. Idealy, you want to bring the yeast temp to the wort pitching temp slowly, so there is no shock when you dump it in. is it making co2?

I don't think so. I don't have an airlock that fits, so I just have the loosely fitting cap I screw on it. I suppose I could put a piece of plastic wrap over it and see if it starts to bulge. It's been a day and a half now, though, and last time it had settled out by this point anyway. Well, I suppose I can just pitch the whole thing into my beer tomorrow anyway. If the yeast never activated, pitching it into the wort will activate it anyway. And if nothing happens, I'll just go back and get another vial of the stuff.

well the nice thing about oatmeal is that its great with plain jane nottinghams dry packs. Ive used them on my stouts for a while now with great results. Ive seen reason put special strain liquid yeast into my german wheats and belgiun wits...not plain old dry stout with oats.

Yeah, I used liquid with my oatmeal stout, and it didn't ferment nearly as much or as fast as my first three batches, but that could also be due to cooler fermenting temps; about ten degrees cooler, on average.

This starter is for a belgian, which really needs the speciality yeast, from my understanding. Next time I'm going to use Nottingham for my stout, I think.

yeah... definitly need some funky yeast with the belgian

I'm about to pitch my wit yeast for the 3rd time friday.... I bet it keeps getting better and better as it mutates

This is pretty much exactly what my starter did last week when I made it for my caramel cream ale batch that I brewed on Saturday. It looked like nothing was going on in the starter. I already knew that my yeast was good, from the smack pack bulge.

I pitched it on Saturday afternoon and had good fermentation activity by Sunday around noon. I say pitch it and see what happens (not that I have a lot of experience)!

david_42 said:

What are you expecting to see? The purpose of making a starter is to increase the number yeast cells. As long as the yeast are multiplying, they will be in suspension. They aren't going to produce a krausen or CO2 at this stage.

Click to expand...

Hmm? My starters do.

I made a small starter batch last night. It was about 18oz pre-boil and 1/2 cup DME. I added 1 vial of London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Liquid Yeast. I shook the hell out of it, and put it in a cabinet overnight. I checked it a couple hours after pitching, and it looked inactive. I checked this morning, about 12hrs after pitching, and it looked about the same. It's very opaque, almost like coffee w/ cream. Is this normal? I'm planning on adding it to my Oatmeal Stout batch this Saturday.

Click to expand...

Making a starter is like making a mini batch of beer, so you will get a small krausen (maybe) and some CO2. You should definately notice something, anyway.

It can take a good 24 - 48 hours to see activity so don't worry. You can pitch when you start noticing some good bubbling or in the case of a lager you'll want to wait till the starter has finished fermentation, crash cool, then decant and pitch the slurry.

I did a rehydration and got no bubbles, so for insurance I pitched another lot as well.

mysterio said:

Torchiest said:

I made a small starter batch last night. It was about 18oz pre-boil and 1/2 cup DME. I added 1 vial of London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) Liquid Yeast. I shook the hell out of it, and put it in a cabinet overnight. I checked it a couple hours after pitching, and it looked inactive. I checked this morning, about 12hrs after pitching, and it looked about the same. It's very opaque, almost like coffee w/ cream. Is this normal? I'm planning on adding it to my Oatmeal Stout batch this Saturday.

Click to expand...

Making a starter is like making a mini batch of beer, so you will get a small krausen (maybe) and some CO2. You should definately notice something, anyway.

It can take a good 24 - 48 hours to see activity so don't worry. You can pitch when you start noticing some good bubbling or in the case of a lager you'll want to wait till the starter has finished fermentation, crash cool, then decant and pitch the slurry.

Click to expand...

That was my first starter, which came out just find, although the attenuation was a little low.

Torchiest said:

I pitched my second starter last night. I think I chilled it too much, and/or my apartment is too cold now, because it's not coffee w/ cream colored this time. When I woke up this morning, it was dark and had sediment in the bottom. I shook it up again, and three hours later, it's still relatively dark. The temp in the apartment is about 65º, as opposed to about 74º last time I made a starter.

This one was White Labs WLP500 Trappist. When I bought it, I noticed that it said "Best Before: Nov-16-06" on the label, and I commented on this to the woman at the LHBS. She said it should still be okay, but if it didn't work, they would reimburse me or give me a replacement or whatever.

Thoughts? Is it just too cold, or could the yeast all be dead? Should I try warming it up, or just wait until brew day on Wednesday and see what happens? The paranoia never dies!

Click to expand...

The second starter is the one I'm concerned about now. The yeast never appeared to be suspended in the wort, although I *suppose* it could've done all the fermenting overnight. That seems unlikely, though, since the temp was pretty cool. My guess is that the yeast is either dead or dormant right now, which sucks, because I can't be sure, I guess, until I pitch it to the main batch.