Urgent ! Dead starter ?

So I bought a scottish wyeast smack pack on thursday night, got home, smacked the pack and unfortunately, the package ripped open. So I Immediately put the slurry in my flask and proceded with a starter (1500 ml). I chilled the wort to 70 F, put it in the flask and finally, my stater was on the stir plate late at night. Now, saturday morning, i still haven't seen any sign of life, no krausen, and the gravity is still at 1.040-42. The color hasn't changed either.

Is my starter dead ? The yeast was 6 months old

Don't pronounce it dead for another 24-36 hours. I've had older yeast take 24-48 hours before the starter kicked into gear.

2 days seems a bit for a starter. What temp do you have it at?

khugs21 said:

2 days seems a bit for a starter. What temp do you have it at?

Click to expand...

Had nothing to do with temp and everything to do with having so few viable cells left in the first starter step. After the first step, the others went as normal.

Temperature was 70-71 F. Perfect for ales ! I was supposed to brew this morning but now it's too late so before dumping the yeast, can I save the wort for my next starter ? I will boil it again just to make sure. If the gravity is still at 1.040, that means it is still full of sugar right ?

If you made the starter with DME, then you could save it, or toss it, no matter.

Did you use a calculation tool/site to figure out the size starters you need for the 6 month old yeast? Chances are you'll need at least two steps to get close to the cell count needed. Check the sizes needed on yeastcalc.com.

Don't dump it, let it ride. Use a pack of dry yeast today, you might still get activity from the Scottish and if so use it later.

golddiggie, I never thought the age of the yeast would be a factor for determining the size of the starter ! I just used the 1 to 10 rule thinking it would only take more time than a fresher pack

Six month old pack of yeast. I would expect a long lag time even in a starter on a stir plate.

Also with that age I would have made a step starter per Yeastcalc to get to final cell counts. I would give this about a week of steps and decants.

If you have an alternative yeast I would pitch that and keep the Scottish going. I doubt it is "dead".

Golddiggie said:

Had nothing to do with temp and everything to do with having so few viable cells left in the first starter step. After the first step, the others went as normal.

Click to expand...

Well if the temp was low enough the yeast would remain dormant. I ferment in my basement and the temps are in the high 50s low 60s. I have to keep a brew belt around my fermenters and around my starters or nothing will happen.

matc said:

golddiggie, I never thought the age of the yeast would be a factor for determining the size of the starter ! I just used the 1 to 10 rule thinking it would only take more time than a fresher pack

Click to expand...

Oh young pugwhacker, you have so much to learn...

The age of the yeast impacts the amount of viable cells left in it. A 2 week old pack has more viable cells than a 2 month old pack. Same thing again in a 6 month old pack (the edge of what Wyeast like to have people use). The good calculation tools/sites take this into account for making starters. I prefer yeastcalc.com since it's easy to set up for three starters, that can be rather small, to get you to the cell count needed for your batch. You would need a significantly larger [single] starter to get the same count. I'm planning on making two starters for next weekends batch. First step will be .7L and the second will be 1L. As a single starter it would need to be 3L in size (almost double).

Without knowing the OG of what you plan to make, it's almost impossible to say what size starter you need. BUT, 1.5L is vastly too small. Especially for a 6 month old yeast pack.

khugs21 said:

Well if the temp was low enough the yeast would remain dormant. I ferment in my basement and the temps are in the high 50s low 60s. I have to keep a brew belt around my fermenters and around my starters or nothing will happen.

Click to expand...

The starter would need to be around/under 50F on the stirplate, for that to happen. Wyeast 1728 has a temperature range of 55-75F for fermenting beer. Unless the OP has the stirplate sitting in the fridge, it's not too cold. He actually posted the temp in the 70-72F range, which means it's a fine temp for the starter (higher than I would ferment at beer at, but good for a starter).

Holy crap ! 1.5 L seems big for me ! Haha. Anyway next time, I will just buy a fresher pack instead of picking an old to save a few bucks ! I wrongly believed that with my super stir plate, I would wake that yeast in no time...We learn every day

It's all a matter of perspective. For me, a single starter of 1.5L is tiny.