Do Belgian Starters get Krausen?

I am about 15 hours on a stirplate for my WLP500 trappist yeast and there is only a few bubbles and a lightening of color as evidence that the yeast are doing their thing. This is the same thing that happened using 1214 Belgian 3 weeks ago. I let that one run over 24 hours and got no krausen.. I pitched it along with another vial assuming it may not have done its thing and got an epic blow out.

In between these two starters I did a 001 that spilled out out the flask...

So do Belgian Yeasts often not foam up?

WLP500 and 1214 have the same origins, so they should behave roughly the same. There's such a variety of yeasts in Belgium there's not much to be accomplished by lumping them into a single category, if you ask me.

At any rate, you can always take the gravity of the starter after you crash it, if you do that. That will tell you if the yeast is active in there for certain. I typically do not see much or any kraeusen from starters from most yeast, regardless of origin.

How long should I give it on the plate before I crash it if I haven seen much activity?

Actually krausen forming on starters can be rare, especially if you're running a stir plate, you're not really giving the yeast an opportunity to build one if the wort is spinning around. And even non stirplate krauzens we often don't see them. Worry less about seeing a krausen and more about seeing a band of yeast on the bottom.

I've maybe only pitched 3-4 starters with krauzens in the 20 years of brewing.

I've had big krausens using the belgian ardennes 3522 and trappist high gravity 3787 from wyeast on a stir plate. I think i lost so much yeast with the ardennes that i ended up underpitching my tripel and it took a month to ferment. The 3787 i ended up transferring it to gallon jug to prevent similar scenario. Have not had any krausen with any other yeast on the stirplate.


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mclaughlindw4 said:

I've had big krausens using the belgian ardennes 3522 and trappist high gravity 3787 from wyeast on a stir plate. I think i lost so much yeast with the ardennes that i ended up underpitching my tripel and it took a month to ferment. The 3787 i ended up transferring it to gallon jug to prevent similar scenario. Have not had any krausen with any other yeast on the stirplate.


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There is something freaky about a starter needing a blowoff, I had one I think before I had my stirplate for one of the English strains, that basically lifted the tinfoil cover off the flasks about an inch or 2.

Being new to this I didn't know how common or uncommon blow off on a stir plate was. I know I haven't seen it with the french saison or the scotch ale yeast.

In the case of the two that did. The stir bar was definitely spinning. I had cranked it way up a couple times to see if I could get the krausen to fall. I had gone back and read the description of the trappist high gravity and it calls it a "true top cropping" yeast and says "additional headspace is required". So I thought that perhaps the stirplate was not enough to keep the yeast in check. And maybe the ardennes was similar.


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WLP300 and WLP530 are the only 2 strains I ever had issues with. Both of these are known to be aggressive right off that bat. WLP530 always get me on the second step when brewing HG Belgians.

http://imgur.com/QXe1DtT

Saison brett blend from TYB. this was less then 8 hours, with the plate on high. It has mostly dropped out now after 36hrs.

I have gotten MASSIVE krausen in my starter off of the two Belgian strains I use the most, Wyeast 3787 and The Yeast Bay Northeastern Abbey. For the Northeastern Abbey one, I recently had a 3L starter going in a 5L container on a stir plate, and the head space was almost not enough. I wasn't surprised though given how vigorously it ferments and how massive of a krausen it forms during fermentation.

I just did a 800 ml starter into a 1.8 L starter and both had small kraussen. Nothing crazy but it was there.