yeast harvest - starter Qs

Hello all,

My bride was on a trip to Belgium and brought back a couple of beers. She pulled them out sorta late one night and we cracked open the Tripel.

We finished it and she says - "hey, it has yeast in the bottom like yours". Ok it was late and I wasn't thinking about yeast harvesting... unprepared...

So I ran around and made a starter following the directions in a couple of books. It took about 4 days before any action happened. Then a nice white layer built up, and a bit of foam and crud at the surface.

Q1 - was the delay due to the small amount of yeast in the bottle?

Then I went to step it up so I can brew a trippel later next week and 16 hours later - it just seems carbonated when I give it a swirl. It smells just like the Tripel.

Q3 - is this normal?
Q4 - is this perhaps becuase the tin foil is getting a little too tight?
Q5 - do I continue to give a swirl every now and then (no stir plate)?
Q6 - If I want to keep this alive until my supplies get here - what is the best approach - i need to buy about 12 - 19 days.
Q7 - I understand this could be bottling yeast vice fermenting yeast, but its a worthwhile learning event.

Thanks a ton,
Jon

Sounds like you are doing everything OK. I doubt it actually took that long. When growing yeast up it is probable that it happened so quick you just didn't notice the activity. if you want to keep it for a while I'd chill the starter, decent the spent wort, then store it in sterile water. Then I'd make another starter with it a day or two before your brew day....

Thanks Michael,

By sterile water do mean water that has been hard boiled for 10 minutes or something else?

Do I "cold crash" the starter before decanting to try and put the yeast down and how long will it be viable with sterile water in the fridge?

Thanks
Jon

You should read the yeast washing sticky...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/
it's pretty much the same as where you're at with your starter just on a smaller scale.

So....

Brewed a tripel last night with this..... seems to be going well, very nice visual signs of fermentation, but I will not crack the pail for 4 weeks. OG was 1.093... I am very curious to see if I captured fermentation yeast from the brewer or bottling yeast.

In any case I will make beer.

I also used this as an excuse to make my own Belgian Candi Sugar.

Thanks for your help.