So I ordered a vial of WLP060 with my recipe. I boiled 6oz of DME to make a 2liter starter. I havent seen any krausen and it has been almost 4 days. I know it is fermenting because it reeks of sulfur and the sediment at the bottom has doubled. Was this due to a not so healthy vial of yeast? I did shake it constantly throughout the first 2 days. should i pitch this in my 5 gallon batch this coming Saturday? Is that too long of a time gap to pitch this? and does anyone recommend decanting the liquid off the top first? I'm afraid it wont perform well or not at all. I have time to reorder another vial and give it another crack at it. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Starter had a slow ferm! old yeast? Should I use it?
- Thread starter klamz
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Ok someone had posted a similar complaint a few threads below this. I apologize! Feel free to comment though. I still would like to know if waiting a week is still too long to use this starter. I have it covered with a piece of tin foil BTW.
I believe that the recommended practice is for you to now put the starter in the refridgerator until a few hours before you brew.
take it out, pour off most of the liquid above the flocculated yeast which should have settled to the bottom. Let that warm up, stir, then pitch.
If you see yeast on the bottom, especially since it has doubled, the starter is working. It has been my experience that starters act very differently each time that I do one. Some blow-off, others don't do much. They have all worked just fine.
take it out, pour off most of the liquid above the flocculated yeast which should have settled to the bottom. Let that warm up, stir, then pitch.
If you see yeast on the bottom, especially since it has doubled, the starter is working. It has been my experience that starters act very differently each time that I do one. Some blow-off, others don't do much. They have all worked just fine.
I've only ever seen one krauzen on any starter I made...it doesn't really matter, what matters is the yeast at the bottom, if you got it, then the starter took off fine.
And there is really no such thing as a "fast" or "slow" fermentation, every fermentation is different and the yeast has it's own agenda and timeframe.
Just like with other animals, including humans...No two behave the same.
You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...one could even take longer to finish and taste good. or some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...
Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...
So don't worry about the "rate of fermentation" or if airlock bubbles or anything like that.
And there is really no such thing as a "fast" or "slow" fermentation, every fermentation is different and the yeast has it's own agenda and timeframe.
Just like with other animals, including humans...No two behave the same.
You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...one could even take longer to finish and taste good. or some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...
Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...
So don't worry about the "rate of fermentation" or if airlock bubbles or anything like that.
That's not a "recommended" practice, that is just the way some folks do it...It's just some people's preferences....
I'm actually not a fan of that practice. That flocculates the yeast, yes...but it puts them into dormancy, and then they have to wake up again, which means longer lag time, and the possibility of thermal shock between cold yeast and warm wort at pitching time, unless you then bring the cold crashed yeast back to room temp for a few hours to revive them. Which means then that you have to plan your cold crashes even earlier to have time for it to warm up again.
If you do cold crash and pitch then don't stress out if it takes 72 hours for fermentation to begin....
My thought here is that OP has had his starter going for 4 days, and brew day is not until Saturday which is 9 days or so.
Revvy knows much more than I about this, but that seems to be a long time as a starter. Putting the yeast in dormancy will let them rest instead of trying to consume and becoming "mal-nourished" for lack of a better word.
Revvy, please offer your thoughts on that, I am likely way off based. OP, please listen to Revvy's advice on this one.
You could, or you could cold crash it and flocculate it in the fridge til friday night and pull it out of the fridge, so it's back to room temp by pitching time on saturday....Me, I'm pretty lazy...I would leave it alone til saturday...But as you can see there is more than one way to skin a cat in brewing.
What I was getting at with 'tuna, is there is no "right or wrong" way to do anything in brewing.....The prefered method is only the one YOU as the brewer chooses.
BioBeing
Well-Known Member
Chilling the yeast will put them into dormancy, yes... but then so will letting them run out of food. Biochemically, the processes might be slightly different, and they might wake up at slightly different rates depending on which genes need to be switched off/on etc. But for all intents and purposes, dormant is dormant. I doubt it makes a huge difference to the finished beer (but I am just guessing about that!).
Personally, I like to cold crash them if I have a large volume of starter, just so I don't pitch a gallon of old wort into my fresh beer. For a liter or less, I'm quite happy to just throw them in. Or cold crash if I have time, and take them out of the fridge when I start the mash to come up to temp. YMMV.
Personally, I like to cold crash them if I have a large volume of starter, just so I don't pitch a gallon of old wort into my fresh beer. For a liter or less, I'm quite happy to just throw them in. Or cold crash if I have time, and take them out of the fridge when I start the mash to come up to temp. YMMV.
