So I am mashing right now, and I made a starter Friday night with a vial of white labs cali V ale. There has been no activity in the starter, which I have never had happen before, so I'm not sure what is going on. I have a backup packet of Safale-04 that I can use, but not sure if I should dump it in the starter now, or straight into the beer when it is done. Any ideas? Thanks.
Brewing now - starter didn't start
- Thread starter Hermish
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VTBrewer
Well-Known Member
starters can show absolutely zero activity sometimes. are you able to take a gravity reading of it?
Activity in a starter really only means one thing and one thing only.
It doesn't matter one blip in your fermenter or your starter flask if the airlock bubbles or not (if you are using an airlock and not tinfoil if you are using tinfoil, you aren't getting bibbling anyway,) or if you see a krauzen. In fact starter fermentation are some of the fastest or slowest but most importantly, the most boring fermentations out there. Usually it's done withing a few hours of yeast pitch...usually overnight when we are sleeping, and the starter looks like nothing ever happened...except for the little band at the bottom. Or it can take awhile...but either way there's often no "activity" whatsoever....
I usually run my stirplate for the first 24 hours, then shut it down, if you are spinning your starter it is really hard to get a krausen to form anyway, since it's all spinning, and there's often a head of foam on it from the movement.
All that really matters is that creamy band o yeast at the bottom.
This is a chilled sample so it's flocculated, but even with an unchilled sample you should see a band of yeast at the bottom. Here's an unchilled version
Same thing, a band.
As it is I've only ever seen two or three krausens actually on my starter (one blew off a bunch of krausen and knocked the tinfoil off the flask,) and the evidence of one on the flask at the "waterline" once. But I've never not had a starter take off.
Look for the yeast at the bottom, don't worry what it looks like on top.
If you have yeast on the bottom....that's all you really need.
If it looks anything like that, your are ready to either feed it again, or use it.
People always think the yeast at the bottom of the flask is the same, but they are wrong. I am 100% sure your starter took off fine.
It doesn't matter one blip in your fermenter or your starter flask if the airlock bubbles or not (if you are using an airlock and not tinfoil if you are using tinfoil, you aren't getting bibbling anyway,) or if you see a krauzen. In fact starter fermentation are some of the fastest or slowest but most importantly, the most boring fermentations out there. Usually it's done withing a few hours of yeast pitch...usually overnight when we are sleeping, and the starter looks like nothing ever happened...except for the little band at the bottom. Or it can take awhile...but either way there's often no "activity" whatsoever....
I usually run my stirplate for the first 24 hours, then shut it down, if you are spinning your starter it is really hard to get a krausen to form anyway, since it's all spinning, and there's often a head of foam on it from the movement.
All that really matters is that creamy band o yeast at the bottom.
This is a chilled sample so it's flocculated, but even with an unchilled sample you should see a band of yeast at the bottom. Here's an unchilled version
Same thing, a band.
As it is I've only ever seen two or three krausens actually on my starter (one blew off a bunch of krausen and knocked the tinfoil off the flask,) and the evidence of one on the flask at the "waterline" once. But I've never not had a starter take off.
Look for the yeast at the bottom, don't worry what it looks like on top.
If you have yeast on the bottom....that's all you really need.
If it looks anything like that, your are ready to either feed it again, or use it.
People always think the yeast at the bottom of the flask is the same, but they are wrong. I am 100% sure your starter took off fine.
VTBrewer
Well-Known Member
Hmm. Interesting. While I agree with Revvy 99.99% of the time, and also think this starter is most likely fine, I guess the above answer raises a question for me.
Wouldn't even a completely dead propagator settle out a creamy band at the bottom of the flask, or would it be more of a little scattering because they didn't reproduce at all?
I always use my refracto and that is what I proof it out with. Just wondering, as I've never had a starter not start.
Wouldn't even a completely dead propagator settle out a creamy band at the bottom of the flask, or would it be more of a little scattering because they didn't reproduce at all?
I always use my refracto and that is what I proof it out with. Just wondering, as I've never had a starter not start.
Just pitched a 1L starter of Cali V last night - same thing for me, starter looked completely dead when I pitched it. Woke up this morning and airlock is bubbling twice a second and there's a nice, thick krausen on the beer. First time using this yeast, but that limited experience tells me you're going to be fine.
One thing to ALWAYS start from- Yeast just isn't in the 21st century "bad" these days. Unless you dump your yeast into boiling wort, modern yeast is 99.999% going to be healthy, and going to work- even if there's a few viable cells, and you make a starter they will reproduce.
This idea that new brewers and folks wanna perpetuate that yeast is somehow frail, and prone to failure is beside being absurd, about 30 years out of date...yeast no longer comes in dry cake form, on hot cargo ships, and sits under the lids of premier hopped malt extract in your grocery store for god knows how long before we get to use it- That sort of thing hasn't happened since homebrewing prohibition ended in 1978- Modern yeast just donesn't not work most of the time.....it's usually handled in a proper manner from yeast lab to distributor to retailer and it usually referigeratored and even lasts long beyond it's expiration date, and can survice 4,000 years encased in amber and STILL make beer, there's really no reason to mentally default to the "my yeast is dead." Idea...
I've never had a beer not turn out, I've never had yeast not do what it was supposed to, and I've never had yeast just spontanaeously die.
If you realize that if that idea of weak yeast is pretty much a myth, then you start to realize that just maybe it's not the yeast, but the brewer's wrong assumption of how yeast is supposed to "look" (Usually when someone on here uses the word activity they mean 90% of the time, airlock bubbling- and the other 10 percent krausen formation-which we know both are faulty) that is the problem....
Mikethepoolguy
Well-Known Member
Do you want to see activity? Dump a pack in some 98F barleywine wort. In a1/2 hour you will be covered in yeast. Don't really do this just remember that yeast divides on its own if conditions are right. It doesn't have to find another yeast and mate on the third date. All I and my dunkelweisen are saying is that a single one day starter looks pretty much the same on day 2 as day 1. I hope I am in control when its time to pitch. Yes, my beer contains alcohol.
Well, I used the white labs starter just like I normally would, and got no activity for 3 days. I'm not sure what went wrong since I have never had that happen before, but I dumped in the Safale yeast and had activity within 24 hours, so things should turn out fine.
rycov
Well-Known Member
i'm kinda wondering this too. anybody know?
Did the gravity change after the 3 days?
I didn't take a gravity reading, but there was absolutely no activity for 3 days, and since adding the safale it has been going steady for 2 days.
