starter looks funky.

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B_Lines

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So I did my starter like normal. About 3oz of dme. Boiled it, cooled it, pitched a wyeast English ale yeast. On the stir plate it looks like it is curtled. When I stop the spin all the clumps fall down and seperate really quick. I've never had a starter do that before. Did I do something wrong?
 
I had the same thing with a White Labs dry english ale yeast. A few people told me that is the nature of english ale yeast. It looked kinda like a lava lamp. Turned out perfectly fine.
 
Whenever I've used wlp002 or wlp007, I always comment on how it looks like cottage cheese. I think your starter is fine.
 
JLem said:
Whenever I've used wlp002 or wlp007, I always comment on how it looks like cottage cheese. I think your starter is fine.

+1 same experience here
 
Grinnan5150 said:
I have also got the same curdled result with White Labs Irish Ale yeast. Must be a UK thing.

I used some Mr beer cowboy and had the same thing. The company said some if there Malts have some curdling type stuff in the malt. Inside the carboy it is bubbling like crazy. Thus is a first for me.
 
My third generation american ale ii went clumpy. Smells fine and it's going crazy in the low 60's. There must be a reason.
 
Basically this is high flocculant yeast, so it starts to clump together and looks like egg drop soup. It is very normal for this strain.
 
It's awesome that this thread is hear because I just did a search for WLP002 with the same concern. Looks chunky.

image-397868336.jpg



image-3590677588.jpg
 
enohcs said:
It's awesome that this thread is hear because I just did a search for WLP002 with the same concern. Looks chunky.

<img src="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52751"/>

<img src="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52752"/>

I transferred it to my 2ndary today. SG was 1.005 Taste good no infections and starting to clear. Didn't look too good from the start but did turn out.
 
I chilled the starter over night and it looked normal. I poured off the liquid and re suspended in fresh chilled wart and it immediately broke apart into cottage cheese looking stuff. Smelled fine. I'm not concerned. I guess that's a high flocculating strain for you. I look forward to a very clear ESB.
 
As mentioned by others, this is normal. I have this happen to my starters when using Wyeast 1968 ESB.
 
Is this yeast a fast fermenter? I pitched an appropriate size starter Saturday night, it was going by Sunday morning (usual for most yeast I've used), but I got very little kreusen, and it collapsed by Wednesday morning. When I tested the gravity it was exactly where I was aiming for and the ESB tastes fantastic. 3.5 days??? Wow.
 
enohcs said:
Is this yeast a fast fermenter? I pitched an appropriate size starter Saturday night, it was going by Sunday morning (usual for most yeast I've used), but I got very little kreusen, and it collapsed by Wednesday morning. When I tested the gravity it was exactly where I was aiming for and the ESB tastes fantastic. 3.5 days??? Wow.

If you're asking about 1968, Wyeast calls this strain "extremely highly flocculant", so expect your yeast to drop out like a rock. Saturday to Wednesday sounds like plenty of time for a decent ferment with a healthy starter.
 
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