Is my Starter doomed?

I made a starter last night. It was a 1028 London pack, smack activated first. I put it in roughly 1200 ml of wort, my refractometer read a little under 1.070 before I pitched the yeast. I made sure to aerate before pitching.

I had read that it's good to give it a swirl every once in a while if you have no stir plate. This morning (~ 10 hours in) I went to give it a swirl and the starter foamed up over the top spilling 200 ml out. 5 minutes later it swelled down and there's a 1/2 - 1 inch foam on the top.

I was planning on brewing tomorrow afternoon but am wondering if I should just get a new starter going and wait a few more days. I also haven't been using an airlock, but tin foil over my flask. Any suggestions at all are greatly appreciated. thanks!

I'd use it, however you should not be using 1.070 wort to make a starter. Ideally you want 1.030 - 1.040 .

I'm new to starters and all the info I read seems to have conflicting info. Last night I did 1.5 cups:1.5 Qts. Any tips on a good rule of thumb? Is it worth getting an airlock in the future?

Here, this is an easy guide... your starter is fine. You could actually "step it up" by making more wort in a larger container and putting the first starter into that. Also, you don't want to deprive the starter of air with an airlock. I've heard a lot of people cover the flask with sanitized aluminum foil, but I like a foam stopper

Awesome. Thanks guys definitely a big help. I guess I'm used to having the air lock be a really visible indication that something is happening. Not quite sure just yet for what I should be looking for.

Any more tips are greatly appreciated. I just watched this video from Wyeast,



He suggests doing a 2 L starter, roughly. I guess with all things beer, there's so many minor tweaks you can really get into that all depend on other little things/preference. Either way, all the help is appreciated.

Doubling the above recipe would result in about a 2L starter. Personally, I weigh everything in grams and use the 1-10 mix. 1 gram of DME per 10ml of water so 100 G for a 1 liter, 200 grams for a 2 liter and so on

bottlebomber said:

Doubling the above recipe would result in about a 2L starter. Personally, I weigh everything in grams and use the 1-10 mix. 1 gram of DME per 10ml of water so 100 G for a 1 liter, 200 grams for a 2 liter and so on

Click to expand...

Seriously, this is the easiest way.

Also, check out http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html to see how much yeast you should be pitching.