Dead yeast?

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Rick500

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I made a starter from a vial of WLP029 (German Ale/Kolsch) about 15 1/2 hours ago, and while I know there's not always a lot of activity visible, this still looks dead as a doornail:

wlp029starter.jpg


71F, swirled many times over the first 4 or 5 hours, 3 oz by weight of light DME and one liter of water, boiled for 15 min and cooled to 70F before pitching...

Should I let it go another half day and see if there's so much as a bubble, or get more yeast? This yeast was shipped from TX in the middle of July, and although there was a cold gel pack in there, it wasn't cold when it got here. I'm thinking it's dead.
 
Yeah, there's a little less than 1/4" of yeast at the bottom, but I can't tell if it's more than the amount that was in the vial.

I guess I'll do a gravity reading tonight and see where it is, and probably just get more yeast in the meantime.
 
Are you sure it has not already fermented while you we're not looking? I know its a pain to use a hydrometer but that is the only way to know other than if you have a brix meter (refractometer). I hate that when it happens too because I paid for it and got a bum steer.
 
I just checked the SG and it's 1.034. I didn't check before I pitched, but I have to think it hasn't changed much. I went out and got another vial; I'm gonna go ahead and pitch it in the starter.
 
It'll take off with another vial, but I don't think 15 hours is long enough to judge if a starter is ok. I've had some starters take a few days to really get kicking.
 
How refreshing it is to actually have someone USE their hydrometer to diagnose their problem. :mug: Sorry about having to repitch your starter though, but sadly, that it pretty common with mail order yeast in summer....
 
This is kind of ironic but I am in the exact same situation with the same exact strain of yeast. Mine is 48+ hours with no visible evidence of fermentation. Cant think of anything that would have caused it to not work. Ill probably just buy another vial.
 
Second vial did the trick. I guess the first one was dead.

wlp029_starter2.jpg


The brew day was shot due to the remnants of Ike anyway. I have a bunch of walnut trees in my backyard and we had up to 75 mph gusts today. Walnuts flying everywhere. It wasn't safe to be out there.
 
I made a starter from some California V (WLP 051 I believe) that I had washed 2 months ago. It had a similar start...SLOW for the first 24 hours, then slightly faster in the next 12. Whenever I shook the flask to aerate, it almost looked as if it was carbonated, but no krausen. That evening I pitched it to a Christmas ale, and within 10 hours it was off like a bandit! So far so good!
 
I noticed that you have a New Albanian growler. I love that place they have amazing brew!

Yep! I agree. I try to get out there at least every other weekend or so.
They're brewing Beak's Best again, by the way! Woot!
 
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