No Krausen on yeast starter after 18 hours?

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kelly7552

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I'm trying to debug my beer. :) On Sunday I made a Pilsner Lager and an English IPA (it was my second and third brew). Using extract kits, things proceeded well. When the IPA wort was finished, I pitched a vial of burton ale and set it to ferment. That was 48 hours ago. After about 18 hours I noticed that the top of the wort was like glass, not a bubble in the world. So, yesterday, I bought another vial of white labs burton ale yeast and decided to create a starter. I harvested yeast from my first beer, some california ale yeast, so I created two starter worts, one with fresh california yeast, and one with new Burton Ale yeast. These went into two serile quart mason jars with plastic wrap and rubber bands.

This morning, I had 1/2 an inch of krausen on the california ale, and it was in full yeast swing; however the burton ale yeast is milky colored: it has pushed the saran wrap up like a small balloon, but their is no krausen. Is this good yeast?

I noticed that the expiration dates both 3/16/09 (for the lot that went into the wort and for the lot that went into the starter)

I'd love to pitch something into my IPA so I could get actual beer and not malt sugar. :)

Thanks,

-Bill
 
milky color is good, means lots of yeast in suspension. Ive heard good things about this yeast, but have never used it myself, so Im not sure what kind of krausen you should be looking for. Chico (California Yest) I know well, and it sounds like its doing it thing in your other starter. Burton....who knows. Do you see bubbles coming up the side of your flask? If you swirl it does a bit of foam form at the top?
 
milky color is good, means lots of yeast in suspension. Ive heard good things about this yeast, but have never used it myself, so Im not sure what kind of krausen you should be looking for. Chico (California Yest) I know well, and it sounds like its doing it thing in your other starter. Burton....who knows. Do you see bubbles coming up the side of your flask? If you swirl it does a bit of foam form at the top?

No bubbles, and no foam.
 
I've only ever seen one krauzen on any of the starters I've ever made.

I wouldn't worry about it...No two fermentations are ever the same, even between identical yeasts/worts...

If you got CO2 you had fermentation...and if your saran wrap was pushed up you have CO2.

It's fine.
 
Also, I wouldn't be overly worried about no bubbles in your primary after only 18 hours. Lag times can be more than 24. It's not ideal, but not necesarily a problem.
 
I've only ever seen one krauzen on any of the starters I've ever made.

I wouldn't worry about it...No two fermentations are ever the same, even between identical yeasts/worts...

If you got CO2 you had fermentation...and if your saran wrap was pushed up you have CO2.

It's fine.

Just to check I just to a hydrometer reading and it 1.041 so I think I haven't seen any activity. Given the size of the sample I probably don't have many reading left. :) Smelled sweet and yeasty.
 
Same issue. Been on stirplate for 24 now milky slight bubbles on top no krausen ring or anything. Just put in fridge to cold crash will look tonight to see if any yeasties at bottom.
 
I noticed that the expiration dates both 3/16/09 (for the lot that went into the wort and for the lot that went into the starter)

If this date is right I wouldn't expect that you will get any results at all.

5 1/2 year old yeast??

Though the bulging plastic wrap makes it seem there is some fermentation happening.

Take the plastic wrap off the jars. The yeast need oxygen to reproduce. Just cover the top with aluminum foil - no rubberbands.
 
So mine looks like this 6 hours in fridge

1409804550374.jpg
 
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