Weird/flakey yeast starter (pic + video). Thoughts?

Hey all. So, I pitched som WLP002 British Ale Yeast into a standard 1liter starter yesterday. Well, actually, I tossed the glob of yeast into the flask, and then poured the wort on top of it. Didn't think much of it at the time. Anyway, when it started stirring, I noted that while the yeast glob was breaking apart, it was still "chunking" (flocculating?)

10 hours in, there was some bubbling happening, but not much of a krauzen. Still chunky.

18 hours in, it actually looks a little more chunky. Still no krauzen.

PIC:


VIDEO:


When I pitched the yeast, the WL vial might have been a little too cold. Maybe 55-60f where my wort was about 70f. Would that be enough to shock/kill the yeast?

I'm just used to a high krausen, bready smelling starter. And this one isn't.

Perfectly normal for 002.

The lack of krausen might also be due to the fact that you have your stir-plate on 11.

Well of COURSE it's at 11. That's one faster than 10.

Nugent said:

The lack of krausen might also be due to the fact that you have your stir-plate on 11.

Click to expand...

Wait until you get WLP002 into a 5 gallon volume, it's like watching a lava lamp full of cottage cheese.

London ESB looks almost identical - both are highly floculant yeasts, and both tend to form chunks even while the stir plate is set to 11. You're all good.

EDIT: Love the Spinal Tap reference, BTW!

Had this same thing happen to me today. I made the starter with Wyeast 1968 last night(~12 hours ago), put it on the stir plate and woke up this morning to find the cottage cheese appearance. No evidence of any krausen, foaming, or bubbles.

Made an identical starter with 1968 a few weeks ago and woke up to a milky, fizzy, aggressive fermentation with no flocculation until i pulled it off the stir plate.

I'm not worried about it, just wanted to share my experience with this yeasts starter activity.