My liquid yeast fizzed out when I opened it. Will the lost yeast matter?

I was making a starter and shook the yeast, WLP300, to suspend the settled yeast on the bottom. When I unscrewed the top the yeast overflowed from the tube. I managed to get most of it in my carboy but some was definitely lost. Will the lost yeast affect my fermentation? Should I let the starter go for more than 24 hours just to be safe?

aldubya said:

I was making a starter and shook the yeast, WLP300, to suspend the settled yeast on the bottom. When I unscrewed the top the yeast overflowed from the tube. I managed to get most of it in my carboy but some was definitely lost. Will the lost yeast affect my fermentation? Should I let the starter go for more than 24 hours just to be safe?

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I did the same thing on my first brew - and even worse, I didn't make a starter that time. I didn't lose much, but some did end up on the floor.

Mine still fermented out perfectly (ended up at 1.012 when 1.013 was the target). You'll be fine unless the yeast was old... and even then, just step up your starter.

My LHBS stated yesterday that with the newer vials of liquid yeast a starter isn't even necessary anymore. Is that true?

Depends on the gravity of the beer you're making. But I suspect your LHBS is giving you poor advice.

Indytruks138 said:

My LHBS stated yesterday that with the newer vials of liquid yeast a starter isn't even necessary anymore. Is that true?

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If your OG is 1040 or below starters aren't necessary, but still recommended. If for no other reason than viability.

Indytruks138 said:

My LHBS stated yesterday that with the newer vials of liquid yeast a starter isn't even necessary anymore. Is that true?

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Bad advise unless your brewing a very low gravity beer. Mr. Malty has a calculator that will show you how much of a starter you will need based on several factors. Check it out and play with the numbers, it's a good way to see how the changing variables affect your starter size.

http://www.mrmalty.com

i did the exact same thing today with the WLP300. Eff ! lost a good portion to the countertop but put the rest into the yeast starter... dont know if it will be enough for fermentation,, my OG tomorrow is 1.052 we will see how accurate i will get to that number... second time brewing an all grain. Did you end up getting more yeast to pitch in?

I had a similar problem in my last batch after I ordered online and the delivery person left my yeast and a few other bits on someone else's doorstep for a few days. I'd cracked the lid several times but it was the yeast rather than liquid that was creeping out.

Too late for us now but I'd recommend finding a way to have the liquid yeast sitting on the curvy end rather than lid end so rather than yeast coming out it is the liquid that creeps out.

I shook the hell out of a WLP013 vial one day and the whole thing went Mount Vesuvius on me and I lost almost the entire vial. Ended up pitching a packet of dry yeast that day. As far as pitching without a starter, definitely use mrmalty.com or yeastcalculator.com. I have direct pitched a vial before, but I only brew small batch beers around 2.5 gallon batch sizes. If my viability is dead on for my pitch rate that I need, I will pitch it commando. If it falls even 5% below I will do a smallish kind of pseudo starter. I'll make a 500ml starter wort and pitch my yeast the morning of the brewday and let it go for about 6-8 hours then pitch the whole thing. It wakes up the yeast and gets them started. If I'm more than 5% short, I do at least a 1 liter starter, depending on what the yeast calculators say. This works good for me.