Pacman starter...no krausen?

My brother and his SWMBO are absolutely in love with Rogue Hazelnut brown, so I thought I'd give it a run.

I harvested some Pacman from a Shakespeare Stout and kicked it off w/ a small 500ml starter. After a couple days, I stepped it up with another 500ml followed by another 3 days later. I wish I had a decent digital camera to post a pic, but there is definitely a small layer of sediment on the bottom that looks bigger than what came out of the bottle. The weird thing is I never noticed any activity in the flask whatsoever w/ any of the additions.

Is this normal? How much of a cake should I be seeing on the bottom of a 2L flask w/ a 1500ml starter? Thanks guys!

Well, there are two possibilities I can think of:

1) You aren't giving the yeast enough oxygen.
2) The yeast are dead. Bottle-harvesting can be difficult.

In response to the possibility behind Door #1, O2 is important for yeast growth, so you should shake the flask regularly and (this is important now) don't use an airlock. Use a piece of tinfoil; it'll keep bad junk out but let O2 in just fine.

Good luck!

I have never harvested yeast from a bottle, but I have made starters that you couldn't really "see" any activity, such as no kreausen and whatnot. However, when I would swirl them every few hours I could definitely hear the co2 escaping from the starter. I was worried on the first one, I htought that it wasn't "starting" but I have yet to have a lag time to go over 6 hours since using starters.

Honestly of all the starters I have ever made, both bottle harvesting or from liquid yeasts, I have only seen one krauzen,,,,,

It's really not the krauzen that matters, it's the band of creamy yeast above the sediment at the bottom of your growler, or beaker or jar that matters.

This pic is not great, but see the slightly lighter band between the sediment and the wort?



That's what you are looking for. If you see any then you done your thing...and you can feed it up again.

However, when I would swirl them every few hours I could definitely hear the co2 escaping from the starter

Click to expand...

Yeah same thing happened w/ my last starter. I didn't hear any off-gassing on this one however.

It's really not the krauzen that matters, it's the band of creamy yeast above the sediment at the bottom of your growler, or beaker or jar that matters.

Click to expand...

Yeah I can't really tell if it's just sediment or not. I guess I can always try and pitch it and have a pack of US-05 sitting around just in case it doesn't take off.

This pic is not great, but see the slightly lighter band between the sediment and the wort?

Click to expand...

I can't see a pic.

yeah I guess you can't *blush*

I hate when google image brings back results from blogs...blog pics NEVER work with img tags...

Here, I found an image that better explains it.



The yeast will be a creamy band a different color (usually lighter) than the trub below...

Honestly of all the starters I have ever made, both bottle harvesting or from liquid yeasts, I have only seen one krauzen

Click to expand...

WHEW - I thought it was just me!

Thanks revvy...that pic helps a lot now that I can actually see it.

My starter wort is really dark bc of the small amount of stout that went in w/ it, so I can't really see very well. I can't distinguish a difference in color so I'm worried that it might just be all trub. Is it normal to have a decent layer of trub (1/2" or so) and no viable yeast?

The amount of trub will depend on how much is present in the starter wort. I always recommend taking gravity readings for starters. I usually take a gravity reading before pitching the starter, and giving it a couple of days to ferment. Then I decant the wort to make room for the step up, and take a gravity reading then. If your gravity drops then the yeast have been doing its thing. I almost never see any signs like krausen of fermentation.

Ed

Good Deal!