Liquid Yeast - WLP004 - starter failure?

Hey all -

I am an inexperienced brewer with a grand total of 2 extract brews under my belt thus far. Both were Midwest kits - Irish Red and a wheat (currently finishing fermentation). Both used dry yeast.

I will be doing a stout next (also from Midwest) and this will be a partial mash. I wanted to try liquid yeast this time and got the White Labs (WLP004) that was recommended with the kit. I haven't been able to brew this as of yet but I have kept the yeast vial in the refrigerator. It was in the fridge for about 2 months and is currently still within the "Best Before" date of Oct 14, 2012.

Yesterday, I wanted to make a starter and mixed 1/2 cup of DME into 2 pints of water. Boiled and cooled. I warmed the yeast vial for about 3 hours, shaking intermittently, and pitched when the wort was cooled. Two mistakes at this point - 1) I failed to sanitize the glass container I was using but it was clean at least. 2) I failed to shake / aerate the cooled wort before pitching. Can't do anything about the first but I have been frequently swirling the glass container in hopes of getting some aeration.

It has been a full 24 hours and I have seen nary a bubble or foam forming in the starter. I can't tell if there is any activity. There may be (very questionable) more sediment in the bottom, but I guess I wouldn't expect growth without seeing outward signs of it.

Is there anything that is recommended at this point. I am hesitant to pitch this into anything other than the kitchen sink.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

It is probably fine. Starters don't usually get the obvious signs of fermentation that you'll see with larger batches. When you swirl it, you can usually see bubbles of co2 released (or hear them if your starter glass isn't see through). Make sure your starter is covered w something that allows oxygen in like foil rather than airlock too.

If you are still concerned, step up your starter and see if you can convince yourself that everything is ok. My biggest concern is the lack of sanitation rather than viability and growth of your yeast. If you're still unsure, get new yeast!

Get a stir plate

Same thing happend first starter I did except I sanitized, mine turned out to be a noticably better than average beer also. Rather than the other beers I made with washed yeast without the starter. Just go as scheduled.Its common to not see anything with a starter,its such a small amount.

If you are really concerned, take a gravity reading

The glass jar is covered with foil... I remembered that at least.
I may step-up tomorrow and see what it does for a day or so. Alternatively, the sanitation failure makes me believe I should just pitch it all and spend the 6 bucks on a new vial..

Wait it out it is still early for an intermittently shaken starter.

You may also want to check out mrmalty.com and yeastcalc.com to see if you are making the right sized starter for the beer you are brewing.

As already said, the signs of fermentation in a starter are often very subtle. I have had a couple where the only difference I saw was the increase of the cake on the bottom of the flask.

Are there any indications of an infected starter I should be watching for? Is it worth pitching even if I can confirm the yeast are active?

oakasfan said:

Are there any indications of an infected starter I should be watching for? Is it worth pitching even if I can confirm the yeast are active?

Click to expand...

If it smells different than yeast should.Its your call I guess as far as the sanitation. If I was making larger batches I probably would do it, but it shure would suck to dump that much beer. Ive had a few infected batches that were not worth dumping,it also took along time for them to overcarbonate-so even if it was infected you still could drink it younger anyway.Main thing is to look for a suspicious finish gravity or visual developeing signs in the ferementer. If you cleaned the jar well and rinsed well and covered after drying or whatever I would still pretty confident about it I guess. Or just ge t some dry 04 yeast and not have to worry,if you think you will be paranoid about it.

Thanks for the input thus far....

Re-pitched into a new batch of starter wort. Aerated as well as I could by shaking it in a "sanitized" container until foamy. Hoping to see better results to make me more confident. This is supposed to go into a stout that I intended to leave in the primary for about 6-8 weeks. Does that duration in the primary have any affect on the likelihood of an infection given my initial un-sanitized starter?

I believe that if it's infected .. Then it's infected. No matter how long u let it sit. Just smell it before pitching, if it smells funky then don't pitch it

As others have said, the starters are not always crazy fermenters.

I think the bottom line is, do you spend the extra $10 and just do a new starter (knowing you failed to sanitize the first time) or do you risk $30+ and pitch a possible contaminated starter into your beer. I know what I would do.

Arguing with myself over that exact point....

I just used some 04 a few weeks ago and the starter didnt do much either. I pitched it and it was fine, fermentation took off within a few hours. As stated above, unless it smells bad I would go for it. If the beer doesnt start then you could always toss in some dry yeast or another batch of liquid.

Go by smell. You will feel pretty sheepish if you buy more make a starter and again see nothing anyway.You cant really depend or go by visual anyway. I was disapointed to see nothing,I dont have a stirr plate either.But end fact is it turned out better than one without a starter for myself. In fact I think that is the one I sent in for a competition.It was a good tasting beer.

What did u end up doing?

After decanting and adding new wort I watched for evidence of growth, bubbles, anything..... and there was nothing.

I checked the gravity after about 30 hours on the yeast and it was 1.04+ so I was even more convinced it was't doing anything.

Down the drain it went....

But better the 6 dollar vial of yeast starter made with poor sanitation than a 5gal bucket of infected beer. That's what I have been telling myself anyway...