Fermenting question

Brewed and put in fermenter 5 G of Satsuma IPA approx. 4pm New Years day.

I used a starter of WL001 which had been stewing for a couple of days (inadvertently).

It took 36 hours before the action started and is still only bubbling every 16-17 seconds or so.

My question is: Do I pitch some dry yeast to get her going or let it do its thing? I know WL001 is active and a lot of people say it takes off immediately. But close to 3 days now isn't cutting it.

Thanks

CBlack said:

Brewed and put in fermenter 5 G of Satsuma IPA approx. 4pm New Years day.

I used a starter of WL001 which had been stewing for a couple of days (inadvertently).

It took 36 hours before the action started and is still only bubbling every 16-17 seconds or so.

My question is: Do I pitch some dry yeast to get her going or let it do its thing? I know WL001 is active and a lot of people say it takes off immediately. But close to 3 days now isn't cutting it.

Thanks

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What do you mean by stewing for a couple days? Describe also your starter process...

I would just let it do its thing. It might be a little slow, but it should finish fine.

Demus said:

What do you mean by stewing for a couple days? Describe also your starter process...

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First time doing it so my I asked my local brew store proprietor.

He gave me a 2-3 G container which had some residuals of malt extract in it. He said to run hot water in it, pitch the yeast, shake it up thoroughly and leave the cap on but not tight in order to let a bit of air escape if need be.

"Stewing"...leaving it in the container for a couple of days.

How hot of water? That seems like bad directions... Most yeast don't like over 85 or so.

twistr25 said:

How hot of water? That seems like bad directions... Most yeast don't like over 85 or so.

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That's what I thought.

Tap water hot...probably 120-130.

Well that's probably another reason you had a slow start, you didn't have much viable yeast in your starter.

CBlack said:

First time doing it so my I asked my local brew store proprietor.

He gave me a 2-3 G container which had some residuals of malt extract in it. He said to run hot water in it, pitch the yeast, shake it up thoroughly and leave the cap on but not tight in order to let a bit of air escape if need be.

"Stewing"...leaving it in the container for a couple of days.

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Seriously? He told you to make a starter with left over extract??? That's a local store I'd never visit again!!! Starters need to made from sterile wort or else you are propagating all the other beasties just as much, if not more than your intended yeast. I really have no idea why he would offer such horrible advice....

unionrdr said:

If the container was kept covered,it probably be ok. And most give rehydration temps of between 90-105F. I did it at 90F,& it was the thickest yeast cream to date. But you have to get it down to within 10 degrees or so of current wort temp so you don't shock it. That's the piece of the puzzle I've been missing till that thread about rehydrating yeast kills?.

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It was kept covered. It is a commercial container from Briess.

The wort and "starter" were easily within 10 degrees of each other when I pitched.

Following the advice of another shop, I pitched some dry PA yeast. Safale I believe?...

Since pitching the dry yeast it is now bubbling every 5-6 seconds. Hopefully it'll be ok.

unionrdr said:

If the container was kept covered,it probably be ok. And most give rehydration temps of between 90-105F. I did it at 90F,& it was the thickest yeast cream to date. But you have to get it down to within 10 degrees or so of current wort temp so you don't shock it. That's the piece of the puzzle I've been missing till that thread about rehydrating yeast kills?.

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You are confusing the issue, he said WL001, this is a liquid yeast. No rehydration necessary. Did you just mis-read the post?

CBlack said:

Since pitching the dry yeast it is now bubbling every 5-6 seconds. Hopefully it'll be ok.

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Should do the trick. Make sure you read up on liquid yeasts and starters before you try using them again. You were given some very bad advice. The best defense against this is reading a good home brewing book like How to Brew, or "Yeast". With a good foundation from these you can easily tell when someone is talking from the wrong end!!

I'd be concerned about what you were propagating in your starter. I'm not sure what the temperature threshold of yeast is, but you may well have killed it when pitching into 120-130 F 'starter' wort. It doesn't seem like you got much if any from the starter.

But something was working in it since you had some slow bubbling after a couple of days.

Demus said:

Should do the trick. Make sure you read up on liquid yeasts and starters before you try using them again. You were given some very bad advice. The best defense against this is reading a good home brewing book like How to Brew, or "Yeast". With a good foundation from these you can easily tell when someone is talking from the wrong end!!

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Thanks.

Checked on it this morning and it's churning away every 3 seconds.

Cheers

Demus said:

You are confusing the issue, he said WL001, this is a liquid yeast. No rehydration necessary. Did you just mis-read the post?

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Might've mis-read that part. But the same holds true for starters temp wise. The temps of the starter/wort should still be within 10 degrees of eachother. But the 90F water temp would still hold true for starters. To start off with anyway. I believe it does give the yeasties a stronger cell wall. Not to mention better reproduction.

unionrdr said:

Might've mis-read that part. But the same holds true for starters temp wise. The temps of the starter/wort should still be within 10 degrees of eachother. But the 90F water temp would still hold true for starters. To start off with anyway. I believe it does give the yeasties a stronger cell wall. Not to mention better reproduction.

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Yeast and wort temps do not have to be close. I just pulled a Wyeast pack from the fridge and pitched into 60 degree wort. About a 20 degree difference, and I don't expect any issue.

NOTE: I would normally make a starter, but this is a Lambic Blend and I didn't want to propagate the yeast, so as to allow the other bugs to work.

This is the first time I have ever heard that starter worts should be 90F. No-one would ever pitch yeast into 90F wort (assuming they knew what they are doing). Where did you get this information.

There seems to be a little mix up here. No one is really wrong, but maybe some points need to be clarified.

For yeast, cold -> warm is fine, and actually some people will say this is better, but warm -> cool will cause some of the yeast to prepare for dormancy instead of preparing to ferment the beer.

90F is great for propagating yeast, but bad for fermenting beer.

unionrdr said:

Might've mis-read that part. But the same holds true for starters temp wise. The temps of the starter/wort should still be within 10 degrees of eachother. But the 90F water temp would still hold true for starters. To start off with anyway. I believe it does give the yeasties a stronger cell wall. Not to mention better reproduction.

Click to expand...

Got ya. Rehydration should be 95 to 105 though as recommended by experts. This isn't the pitching temperature though; the small volume of water used for rehydrating will cool to room temperature fairly quickly as the yeast absorb the water. By the time you have good creamy yeast, youi should be down to that 10 degree differential you are talking about...