Messed up Yeast Starter?

Think I messed this up.....

I proceeeded to make a yeast starter on Saturday. It's a Wyeast 3068 Hefeweizen yeast. This is my first time using a liquid yeast so I followed advice I was given to make the starter with 4 tablespoons of light DME, half a litre of water and the yeast.

I made two mistakes:

When I measured the water in my measuring jug I read the wrong scale and poured in half a pint of water instead of half a litre. I'm guessing this has doubled my OG from approx. 1.045 to 1.090.

Secondly when I snipped the pouch I think I cut too small a corner with the scissors as the yeast started to spray everywhere like a power hose! I managed to get some into the bottle but I'm not sure how much I lost. I put a cork and airlock on the bottle (1 litre glass bottle) and popped it in a warm closet and hoped for the best.

After approx. 36 hours there was still no airlock activity or krausen in the bottle. There was a small sediment at the bottom of the bottle which suggests that the yeast is trying to do it's work but I'm not sure whether too little activity has taken place. There are small 'bubbles' of foam (flat) on the surface of the wort. When I shake the bottle vigorously it grows to about an inch but settles back down again pretty quickly.

Is this worth pitching or should I take some other action such as making a new starter with fresh yeast?

You should get the OG back to the intended 1.040 and make sure that the starter is well aerated. Otherwise the yeast will have a hard time working.

The good news is, that starters are not as important for Hefeweizens since you actually want the deveopment of esters that stem from the stress the yeast undergoes when the pitching rate and O2 is low. But I haven't made a Weizen yet (plan to make many of them this summer) and I'm just repeating what I read so far.

Kai

Thanks for the tip Kai - that was quick

Should I just top up the starter with water to reduce the OG and aerate again?

Would you expect this to produce a noticeable impact? In other words should I expect to see some airlock activity or kreusen after I do this?

Never fail starter recipe! Boil 1 quart water/w 3/4 cup malt extract for 15 minuites.Cool down to 75 degrees. Add yeast,then pour in sanitized growler w/airlock. Shake and wrap growler w/towel so no sunlight gets it. I usually get fast wort fermentations about 6 hours or less. hope this helps good luck...

Kai said:

You should get the OG back to the intended 1.040 and make sure that the starter is well aerated. Otherwise the yeast will have a hard time working.

The good news is, that starters are not as important for Hefeweizens since you actually want the deveopment of esters that stem from the stress the yeast undergoes when the pitching rate and O2 is low. But I haven't made a Weizen yet (plan to make many of them this summer) and I'm just repeating what I read so far.

Kai

Click to expand...

I make weizens all the time.Where did ya read that?Sounds interesting.

bigears said:

Thanks for the tip Kai - that was quick

Should I just top up the starter with water to reduce the OG and aerate again?

Would you expect this to produce a noticeable impact? In other words should I expect to see some airlock activity or kreusen after I do this?

Click to expand...

You could use bottled water for this. This makes the assumption that bottled water is sanitized if the bottle hasn't been opened yet. Just wipe the rim with alcohol. The advantage is, that it already contains O2 and you don't have to do as much aeration. If you doubt the sanitary level of bottled water, you can also boil water and cool it before adding it to the starter.

Kai

...although if you boil water, you'll have to aerate it to compensate for the oxygen lost during boiling.

Cheers Kai, I'll give that a go and keep my fingers crossed!

pigpen said:

I make weizens all the time.Where did ya read that?Sounds interesting.

Click to expand...

I got this from a German home brewing board. It was mentioned as an alternative to the mash schedule proposed by Markus Herrmann (Weihenstephan Institure Freising, Germany) where the glucose level in the wort is increased, which leads to more banana aroma in the finished beer. Here is a post I wrote some time ago:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=46981&postcount=10

Kai

Kai said:

I got this from a German home brewing board. It was mentioned as an alternative to the mash schedule proposed by Markus Herrmann (Weihenstephan Institure Freising, Germany) where the glucose level in the wort is increased, which leads to more banana aroma in the finished beer. Here is a post I wrote some time ago:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=46981&postcount=10

Kai

Click to expand...

thats very interesting. so your saying that due to the low pitching level the yeast are then "stressed" and produce more esters?

Here's another good read on wheat beers, but note it's from the UK so must defer in favor of any German institute with Weihenstephan in the name!
http://www.brewlab.co.uk/pdf/whats the use of wheat.pdf

subwyking said:

thats very interesting. so your saying that due to the low pitching level the yeast are then "stressed" and produce more esters?

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That is the idea.Do the opposite of what you would do normally. But watch out, what beer yeast can produce clove and/or banana aroma depending on the fermentation temperature. I like more banana than clove, so I will see that I can keep the temperature in this range. I'm not sure what the ranges are, though.

I'm not sure how the increased level of clucose is stressing the yeast. One ide is that the yeast gets used to eating glucose (corn sugar) and once this runs out it gets stressed since it now has to generate enzymes to eat the remaining maltose.

Kai

bigears said:

Secondly when I snipped the pouch I think I cut too small a corner with the scissors as the yeast started to spray everywhere like a power hose! I managed to get some into the bottle but I'm not sure how much I lost. I put a cork and airlock on the bottle (1 litre glass bottle) and popped it in a warm closet and hoped for the best.

Click to expand...

How do you prevent this from happening? So far I have been using White Lab Yeasts...... which would make sense why I have not had this happen to me yet.....

Good question... I'm hoping that by cutting further from the corner (cutting a bigger hole) will minimise this but I'd be interested to see if anyone has had the same problem. Maybe I had shaken the package beforehand, I can't remember. If it happens again I think I'll consider White Labs myself.

Incidentally I added some bottled water to reduce the OG and it has done nothing in two days. I think i lost too much to begin with, so another batch of yeast is called for!

I've never had it happen to me before, although I always halfway expect it when I snip the near-bursting pouch. Incidentally, I've seen quite a few complaints about White Labs vials exploding on opening, although I haven't experienced that, either.

My LHBS carries only Wyeast and dry yeast. There is no changing to WL for me. But I had this never happen to me either. I don't use scissors to open the package. I just tear it. I'm afraid that there are germs on the scissors blades that may get pitched as well.

Kai