Super-Fast Starter Ferment?

Hey guys, I cooked up my first starter on Sunday night for the IPA I plan on brewing this evening. I boiled 1c. of extra light DME in just over a quart of water, cooled to 80F, transferred to a 1/2 gallon growler, and pitched my yeast (Wyeast 1028 - London Ale). After pitching, I realized that I had forgotten to stir the wort to aerate (although it may have sufficiently been aerated when transferring from the pot to the growler, I splashed around as much as possible), so I capped the growler with aluminum foil and gave it a good shake. This was around 11pm; I went to bed shortly thereafter, and when I awoke at around 8am, there were no visible signs of activity. I came home from work yesterday, and still no activity, no krausen. However, I removed the foil, which was somewhat stuck to the growler, and took a gravity reading, which came out to just over 1.010. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that it fermented out and is good to go; my question is, could it really have fermented out in the 8 or 9 hours between pitching and me checking it the next morning? Also, when pitching, should I decant the liquid and just pitch the yeast slurry, or would it be easier to just pitch the whole thing (I'm also using extra light DME for the IPA, so I can't imagine it would impart any unwanted flavors/colors). It's in the fridge right now, I'm going to take it out when I get home tonight so it gets to room temp by the time i'm ready to pitch.

Just looking for some input on my first starter to make sure I didn't mess anything up.

-Josh

Yep, starters can sometimes go really fast. What's strange is that sometimes you get a big kraeusen, and sometimes you don't. Check for signs the kraeusen was there at the surface of the starter (crust on your vessel..har har).

I like to decant. I usually chill my starter at least a day before brewing which settles the yeast. It also keeps from diluting the wort (2L in 20L is 10%) and I worry about how oxidized my starter may be. However, if I don't get that done in time, I don't mind too much pitching the whole starter (I also use extra light DME).

Baron von BeeGee said:

Check for signs the kraeusen was there at the surface of the starter (crust on your vessel..har har).

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I guess homebrewing is about the only time that crust on your vessel could be considered a good thing. But alas, I digress...

As I said before, I'm using a growler for my starter...If I decant the liquid, how easy is it to get the slurry off the bottom of the growler and into my wort? Will it just pour right out, or do I need to use a spoon or something to coax it outta there? If so, any tips/techniques to get as much out as possible?

another thing you might want to consider in the future is that when you make a starter the idea is to increase the amount of yeast, not just 'wake' them up. Wyeast and white labs pitchables ARE EQUIVALENT to 1 qt starters, so to increase the yeast count increase the volume. 1 cup of dme in 3 qt h20 will get you an og of around 1.040 which is ideal.

making a 1 qt starter with a 1 qt. starter is alot of effort just to wake them up, why not increase them too?
if not at least use less dme, you can use 1/3 of a cup for 1 qt. and get the same effect, and also wont risk making the yeast struggle in a high gravity starter, and its cheaper too.

and i do decant when using 2-3 qt starters (2-3 qt. is alot of starter juice!)

this is my starter chart i based on info from Chris white of white labs:
1.5 qt h20+1/2 c. dme
2 qt. h20+2/3 c dme
3 qt. h20+1 c. dme

all of these will get you about 1.040 wich is what you want for a starter

Thanks Bjorn, it was actually my intention to increase the cell count of the yeast...I didn't realize that making a 1 qt. starter with the smack packs would only wake them up. I think I'll move to larger starters in the future. Fortunately, my IPA isn't going to have an extremely high OG (target is about 1.065), so I should be OK with what I have for this batch.

In terms of getting the yeast out, just leave enough wort in there to swish around and get the slurry moving. You can also use a little water that you're confident is sanitary.

Your cells per gallon rate for pitching a 1 qt. starter is 20 times what it would be if you pitched into five gallons of wort, so 8-10 hours to completely ferment the starter isn't unusual. This means the growth phase was too short to get many extra cells.

Pour off most of the liquid and swirl until all of the yeast is floating, then pitch. If you have a lot of cells left, put some wort in the growler and swirl again.

Baron von BeeGee said:

In terms of getting the yeast out, just leave enough wort in there to swish around and get the slurry moving. You can also use a little water that you're confident is sanitary.

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Or just use the wort you just brewed

Kai

No krausen in the starter is pretty normal with some yeasts I find. Don't be afraid to make a bigger starter in future, by the way. According to 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels the optimal starter size for a 5 gallon batch is 1.2 gallons...

Ok, so bottling my Yukon Arctic Red clone took longer than expected, so I didn't brew last night...how long can my starter last in the fridge? I probably wont be able to brew until this weekend. Should I decant the wort and just keep the slurry cold, or can I just leave it as-is until I'm ready to pitch?

JRGSPE73 said:

Ok, so bottling my Yukon Arctic Red clone took longer than expected, so I didn't brew last night...how long can my starter last in the fridge? I probably wont be able to brew until this weekend. Should I decant the wort and just keep the slurry cold, or can I just leave it as-is until I'm ready to pitch?

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It'll be fine in the fridge until the weekend. My procedure is to pull my starter out of the fridge on brewday and decant the liquid, then let the slurry warm up to room temp while I brew.

Ok, so brewing has been delayed yet again, and the starter is still sitting in my fridge. This brings about a new question: Like an idiot, I forgot about the starter, so it has been sitting in the fridge capped with aluminum foil (The whole "like an idiot" thing comes from the fact that I was going to replace the foil with a bung and airlock but totally forgot about it). What are the odds that my yeast is contaminated/no longer viable...i'm guessing pretty good, since foil won't provide an airtight seal, and refrigerators in general are bacterial paradise. Should I pitch it (in the trash as opposed to into the wort) and make a new starter, or do you guys think it will be ok?

Still looking for some help on this one guys...anyone?

I would make a new starter myself. you definitely want to err on the side of caution when it comes to yeast. But of course you could throw caution to the wind and pitch it. But having had more then a couple of bad batches myself, i would not chance it. (your talking over a week now in the fridge covered with tin foil?)

I would guess that it's not contaminated assuming you had a decent amount of foil covering the top (1-2"). Bacteria don't have wings or legs, and usually drop in like paratroopers. There is a famous experiment with a swan neck flask full of nutrients with no airlock or cap, and it didn't get infected because the bacteria couldn't navigate the swan neck.

I would smell it...if it smells good, go with it. If it smells bad, throw it away. Even if it does smell good, I would 'wake it up' with some fresh wort.

If you have more yeast and the time to make a starter, do it. Why take a chance even though the odds are pretty good that the original starter is good?

IMHO, brewing a batch is too much work for me to have it wasted by laziness on my part.

Thanks for the input guys...I'll probably just make a fresh starter with some new yeast tonight or tomorrow and brew on Sunday.