Yeast starter fermentation.

I made a yeast starter around 36 hours ago and so far its a no go. Howtobrew.com tells me that a fermentation is nessesary. I smelled the inside and it did not smell like alcohol. I was wondering if thats true that there is always some sort of activity. All of the yeast is pretty much on the bottom and it doesn't look like there was no activity.

I doubt you would smell alcohol, but did you look really really closely? Sometimes a few bubbles running up the side is all you get. When did you check it? Could you have missed the activity? Also, tell us about the yeast you used. What type, and how old was it? Finally, if you are using a stir plate you probably won't notice any activity because of the swirling action.

BillyBroas said:

I doubt you would smell alcohol, but did you look really really closely? Sometimes a few bubbles running up the side is all you get. When did you check it? Could you have missed the activity? Also, tell us about the yeast you used. What type, and how old was it? Finally, if you are using a stir plate you probably won't notice any activity because of the swirling action.

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I made it late at night around 10 went to bed around midnight.I do see some bubbles in there maybe like one or two on top and on the sides. Last time I checked was this morning. I may have missed the activity.

I used WLP 060 american ale blend II I bought it a month and a week ago and has been in the fridge that long. I did not use a stir plate. When I pitched the first vial that came with this one it took the beer three days to begin fermentation.

I would guess it's still alive and healthy. You may have missed it, or it hasn't even gotten going yet. Mine have taken 24hrs before showing signs of life. You could also check with a hydrometer to see if the gravity has dropped. That would tell you for sure.

I didn't take a gravity reading when I started... I used half cup dme for 3 cups of water... what should it be around now?

Volume isn't as accurate as weight for measuring DME, but that should put you around 1.030. You're a bit on the low end of where you want to be, but should be ok.

This may help you in the future:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-make-yeast-starter-video-177635/

thanks for the link! Also I never really swirled it enough I'll go back and swirl is when I get home for a while.