Yeast starter failure? Brewing tonight! Help

Came home and my stir plate stopped running.
There's no krausen on my starter. Can I still use it?

Here's a pic. I just got it stirring again

It looks fine. Don't shake it up, though!

Let it hang out until tomorrow or the next day.

I couldn't wait. I decided to go for it last night. I tossed it in when I was done brewing. I woke up this morning and he was fermenting great!

Why should he/she not shake it up?

FlyDoctor said:

Why should he/she not shake it up?

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Some people decant the liquid off the top of the starter, which means you want most of the yeast at the bottom. If you just pour in the whole starter, it wouldn't matter.

Kmcogar said:

I couldn't wait. I decided to go for it last night. I tossed it in when I was done brewing. I woke up this morning and he was fermenting great!

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For posterity, can you let us know the details of your starter -- how long it was on, what yeast it was, etc?

I did the usual starter. 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup of DME. It was washed saison yeast. (wyeast 3711) I set it up on Monday night around 9:30pm. I'm not sure how long the stir plate stopped working for. I didn't check it till I got home on Tuesday at 5:30pm. I kicked the stir plate back on and started to brew. after 4 hours(or so) of brewing I threw the yeast starter in. I woke up at 6:30am and the brew was fermenting like crazy.

Let me know if I left anything out

Cheers

Heh, I currently have a Saison yeast starter too! Every time I get a new yeast, I harvest it into 6 half-pint mason jars. I've not acquired a stir plate yet, but when I make a starter, I let it sit a minimum of 3 days. Get an airlock and a bung for your flask. It's a great way to determine if the yeast has ramped up.

I usually let it sit for 3 days but my wife left town and I was strapped for time.

progmac said:

Some people decant the liquid off the top of the starter, which means you want most of the yeast at the bottom. If you just pour in the whole starter, it wouldn't matter.

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I think they were referring to what happens when you shake up an actively fermenting starter. VOLCANO.

BugLaden said:

Heh, I currently have a Saison yeast starter too! Every time I get a new yeast, I harvest it into 6 half-pint mason jars. I've not acquired a stir plate yet, but when I make a starter, I let it sit a minimum of 3 days. Get an airlock and a bung for your flask. It's a great way to determine if the yeast has ramped up.

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Re: the airlock - some argue that you WANT air to enter to provide oxygen for the growing yeast. Taking that advice, I recently made a Belgian ardenes starter with sanitized foil covering a growler - shaking once and a while to stir up the yeasties. To further corrupt the process, I didn't get to brewing when I had thought I would, and stuck the growler in the refrigerator for 3 weeks. I took it out the night before brewing and pitched it the next day (the entire volume). Within 4 hours the airlock was churning away well - so I guess its OK.

On a side note from a starter novice - if you WANT to pour off the supernatant from the starter after chilling, do it BEFORE warming it up again....I noticed that when I put it back at RT, the yeast al came back up into suspension - and there was new fermentation going on (so it seemed).

Anyway, I think its more forgiving than I thought...