First Starter Yeast...This foam normal?

Cooked up my first starter yeast about 3.5 hours ago. 1/2 cup Light DME with 2 cups of water. Pitched 2 packs Wyest Irish 1084. It's foaming crazy hard. When I was typing this I went ot check on it to find the foam stopped popped off. I turned off the stir plate. Is this normal?

Pic didn't come through for me.

FermCap-S in the boil (you could add it now too)

That much yeast in a 2 cup starter will probably take off like crazy.

Copied it to another window and got it, it was just really large

That looks normal to me. How does it smell and taste? If it smells and tastes good I bet you are fine. What yeast is it? As mentioned, firmcap S will solve that problem. Keeps it nice and calm!

For 2 packs i wouldn't have used less than 2L of wort. You probably didn't hurt anything but you didn't gain much either.

No fermcap S available and LBS closed...This batch is really happy.

Is suggest either 2x2L or 1x5L flasks.

I swirled the starter when it was starting to overflow. It calmed down and looks very good this morning. Will pitch it this evening after I brew.

Looks normal to me.

With only 2 cups you really just proofed your yeast. There isn't enough sugar in there to much replication, if any. For 1 vial you need about 2 liters of starter wort to double the yeast. 2 cups to 2 vials you really just proved the yeast was alive by waking it up. To get more cells you need more volume.

I'll pile on and say the same others have already said.

1) it looks perfectly normal
2) either you should've done a bigger starter, or you didn't need two smackpacks

also...
3) I've had a couple starter blow the foam stopper off as well, and those batches turned out fine

signpost said:

I've had a couple starter blow the foam stopper off as well, and those batches turned out fine

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Me too. I drank that batch quickly just to make sure, but it turned out fine.

Hey Gone Fishin, YOU STOLE MY NAME!! Must be a good name. I am glad you posted this as my last starter did the same thing and I was wondering if it was normal. I had not heard of an additive before this. I used a vial of WLP004 Irish and it went crazy, made a big mess. Then the beer took off as well. You gotta love a good fermentation! Good luck, lets go fishin!

Yep - like the others said, this is normal if you don't have a big enough flask. Unfortunately the slopes sides of the flask help build pressure. Any way you slice it though, if your starter flask is too small, this will happen.

Look on the bright side - at least it didn't erupt the yeast all over your stir plate.

Setesh said:

Me too. I drank that batch quickly just to make sure, but it turned out fine.

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Yeah, that's why I drink all my beer fast too. Or so I claim.

OP, I think it was said, but with that little water, you really did proof your yeast. I just read a bunch on starters and bought a 2l flask and stir bar. I thought 2 cups was good too but someone else on these boards also mentioned needing more water. I do think a bigger flask would be useful. They're $15 shipped via amazon prime right now. Check out homebrew finds.com and you'll find the deal.

OP, a good rule of thumb for your next starter is to use 100 grams of DME per liter. That ratio is out of Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff's Yeast book. Mr. Malty's calculator is a nice tool to help you determine your starter size.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html