how to screw up a yeast starter

I pitched my starter 3.5 days a go into my 1.078 og brew, but got absolutely zero blow off activity.I was about to go get some more yeast this morning, but opened the bucket lid to peak in....there is a nice level of foam / kreusen on top, so fermentation is happening, but not nearly as vigorously as expected.My starter was 1 qt size w/ 1/2 lb of light dme....wpl001 liquid yeast.This was my second starter so I just didwhat I thought was right...made it 48 hrs before brewday.From what I could gather most people decant then swirl the bottom then pitch.That is what I did , but there wasn,t much sediment on the bottom of the starter which did have a lot of kreusen floating.The starter was at 72 degrees , and never refridgerated.I think I may have poured most of my yeast out during the decant.Do you guys think next time I should make the starter 4 days ahead of time to ensure a yeast cake is on the bottom?It seems like everything I,ve read says 2 days is optimum.

I probably would have used the whole starter in your situation. A quart is rather small for a beer with your gravity so that may have something to do with your current fermentation.

If you are going to decant, the starter must be chilled first. Chilling causes the yeast to settle on the bottom.

Sounds like you poured off most of your yeast. If you see any kreusen in the starter it's best to pitch the whole jar. The yeast are actually much more active and will take off very quickly if the starter is actively fermenting.

Next time you should check the SG of your starter before pitching and adjust it to about 1.030 - 1.035. The yeast will take longer to start growing in a high gravity starter just like they do in a high gravity beer, and your starter was probably closer to 1.075. So the yeast took a little longer to get going than you expected, and they hadn't settled on the bottom yet when you decanted.

Do you have a stir plate? or are you using the old shake the hell out of it everytime you walk by it method, (my present method since I haven't gotten around to making the stir plate yet). From what I've read, it is actully better to use the starter while at high krausen. That being said, all the starters I've done have been complete within a day or 2 at the most at 70-75F. You might also try to put your starter in the fridge the night before you brew to help settle the yeast to the bottom. just take it back out to let it warm to room or pitching temps prior to pitching.

Most people don't actually decant a starter. Maybe for a really huge starter (1 gallon or more) but for the most part, a little bit of DME and water isn't going to be enough to affect the SG of a 5 gallon batch much.

The second mistake you made was in the size of your starter. My Malty calculates a 3.85 liter starter for 5 gallons of 1.078 wort. I think that's a bit much, and you could easily get away with ~2 liters of starter slurry. 1 quart (less that 1 liter), however, is underpitching by a huge margin.

I shook it a couple times the first day, but not day 2.The only reason I didn't pitch the whole jar is I didn,t want to dilute my arrogant bastard clone with my starter...I wanted the recipe to be as close as possible to uh the recipe.ok I'm a little confused...is most of the yeast suspended in the kreusen or is that just a byproduct of the yeast....in other words if there is sediment on the bottom , do I need the kreusen too?I know next time to refrigerate to settle out the yeast....I hope my AB brew will still be ok ...would you repitch some yeast at this point or just let it go?

bctdi said:

I shook it a couple times the first day, but not day 2.The only reason I didn't pitch the whole jar is I didn,t want to dilute my arrogant bastard clone with my starter...I wanted the recipe to be as close as possible to uh the recipe.ok I'm a little confused...is most of the yeast suspended in the kreusen or is that just a byproduct of the yeast....in other words if there is sediment on the bottom , do I need the kreusen too?I know next time to refrigerate to settle out the yeast....I hope my AB brew will still be ok ...would you repitch some yeast at this point or just let it go?

Click to expand...

Don't be afraid of over swirling the yeast.

Yeast is suspended in the krausen as well as in the wort.

Your brew should be fine even if you under pitched.

Uh, did you say a *half pound* in a quart?

Yeast starters should be 1.030-1.040 and well oxygenated to promote yeast growth.

Unaerated starters will grow to a maximum concentration of about 10M cells/mL/*P assuming sufficient nutrients, which is about 100B cells. A White Labs tube has ... 100B cells. Since you didn't crash cool the starter you probably tossed most of the (now tired from fermenting a high gravity wort) yeast out, so you drastically underpitched your wort with about 10-20B cells. For a 1.078 wort, I would make a 3L starter with an O2 stone, or a 1.5L starter on my stir plate.

I think I'll just get 1 yeast pack and throw it in tonight after work.I think the yeast needs some reinforcements.Thanks for the help guys.

bctdi said:

I think I'll just get 1 yeast pack and throw it in tonight after work.I think the yeast needs some reinforcements.Thanks for the help guys.

Click to expand...

Good luck. Sh** happens, hopefully it comes out fine anyway. It usually does, anyway.

since I don't have access to accurate scales I've been using 1/2 cup of DME per liter for my starters....

good luck... it may just take off on its own in a day or two....

and next time check out http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

a 1.078 beer need 2.48 qt of starter....

woollybugger2 said:

and next time check out Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

a 1.078 beer need 2.48 qt of starter....

Click to expand...

+1.. I follow that calc like a religion. It's a great tool.