did my starter die?

First a confession...I followed a youtube video. I didn t come here first.
Activated Wyeast 1056 at 11 pm Wednesday . Began starter at 6 am. The bag was well inflated. I combined 2 Cups of water with 2/3 cup of LME and boiled for 15 min. cooled to 72 degrees, added yeast. stirred vigorously It is in a beaker sealed with sanitized foil. got home from work at 4pm there was a layer of goop at bottom of beaker I stirred it all up and continued to stir intermittently all evening. Awoke at 5 am stirred it again and went to work. just arrived home to see a layer of goop but I dont see any bubbling. Never saw any krazen. didnt take a gravity reading. right now i have moved it into the fridge to put it to sleep I am brewing dead ringer on sunday morning. Is my starter alive? how do I tell? I now know I should have used a bigger volume . It is what it is.

What kind of goop? yeast goop??? the yeast cells would settle to the bottom when they're done fermenting, which wouldn't take long with 2C.

EDIT: OH! 2C water with 2/3C of LME? What was the gravity of that? Seems like too much DME.

1.090?! Next time to go one of the online yeast calculators and figure out what you need for a 1.040 wort. If you have the room then volume is your friend. 2-3 liters is a good sized starter for the most part.

yes, I will do that. But is my starter usable?

If everything was sanitized then repeat the process and make yourself a proper size 1.040 gravity starter.
That yeast is not dead, just pooped out from trying to chew through a 1.090 starter.

so, decant this starter and reuse the yeast left in bottom of beaker combine w 1 liter of wort?

what will happen if I pitch this poorly made starter into my wort as originally planned?

I would decant and pitch into a fresh 2l starter

At best you'll have a large lag time while the yeast build up their cell count. At worst you stressed the yeast in your 1.090 'starter' and the beer will have significant off flavors in addition to a long lag time.
Once you get into high gravity solutions the strain put on the yeast causes them to mutate much too rapidly and they are essentially single use.

Not to take this thread off track but I've never used LME for starters. DME, a 2L flask, and a scale. Makes life very easy.

I've been doing some figuring and am I off the mark when I say 1/3 cup (which is 2.6 fluid oz) is a good amount of LME to use per quart of water for about a 138-ish starter?

can anyone recommend a White Labs yeast to replace the Wyeast 1056 which I have apparently ruined. My LHBS carries White Lab. I'm brewing one way or another this sunday.

White labs wlp001. Same thing. Or us-05 forms dry option.

Hopefully brew day goes well for you. Chalk it up to learning. Also, these starters are easier when you can weigh out the DME. That way you can hit your starter og with greater precision.

sandyeggoxj said:

Hopefully brew day goes well for you. Chalk it up to learning. Also, these starters are easier when you can weigh out the DME. That way you can hit your starter og with greater precision.

Click to expand...

+1 to this.

I forgot to mention the weighing earlier when I said make a proper starter.
10g of DME per 100mL of water will get you around 1.040.
Depending on the OG of your beer and the viability of your yeast, a 1-2 liter starter will be usually be enough.

I have a non-starting starter. Boiled 3.2 oz DME in a quart of water, cooled, added my Wyeast pack. What I didn't do was strike it and let it sit. Instead I struck the pack then opened and poured into the wort.

No activity at all.

I'm going to pour off the wort since the yeast has settled into a nice, neat cake on the bottom of the jar, and try pouring another batch of starter wort on it. If this fails, then screw it. I have a batch ready to brew but want a healthy colony to pitch.


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TopherJohn said:

I have a non-starting starter. Boiled 3.2 oz DME in a quart of water, cooled, added my Wyeast pack. What I didn't do was strike it and let it sit. Instead I struck the pack then opened and poured into the wort.

No activity at all.

I'm going to pour off the wort since the yeast has settled into a nice, neat cake on the bottom of the jar, and try pouring another batch of starter wort on it. If this fails, then screw it. I have a batch ready to brew but want a healthy colony to pitch.

Click to expand...

How old was the wyeast pack? What strain? Those are good for 6-months from the mfg date on the pack.

*Guaranteed 6-Mo from manufacturing. The yeast are likely still viable after that but you won't have the claimed cell count. When in doubt just make a starter.

I didn't check the mfg date. My LHBS is pretty good with moving past-date yeast to the bargain bin. It was Wyeast 1056

I repitched the yeast to a new starter. Had a bit of activity but no where near what I want. Eh. Going with Safale-05 and the starter is going down the drain.


"I will make it felony to drink small beer. "

Your not really going to see much activity really all the time,if you did a step starter then its probably good to go. Are you aerating or using a stirplate?

it sounds like the starter is fine. The yeast will settle to the bottom of the jar when they finish eating the available sugar in the wort. They're just hanging out down there resting. Activity on a starter is usually not very noticeable and usually occurs pretty quickly. Perhaps you can check the gravity of the starter and see if it fermented to be sure, but it sounds like it's ok to me.