Has my starter gone bad?

[davidtraher]

This is my first starter, used WLP080 Cream Ale yeast. I don’t have a stir plate. Made it Wednesday night, it’s now Saturday morning, shaked the starter Wort like crazy for several minutes, added yeast (not sure it was room temp, probably a little cooler), added the yeast, swirled it around, left it until morning. Swirled in the morning, didn’t look like much was going on though. Due to that stupid work thing, wasn’t able to swirl shake until Thursday evening. Friday morning it appeared to have a layer forming on the bottom. Threw it into the fridge to separate it but when I checked it Friday evening, it basically looked the same. Rightly or wrong, put it back on the counter, gave it a swirl, it foamed up some, left it overnight and this morning there is definitely a layer on the bottom but it is grey. It smells sweet. Took the pictures below. Pitch calculator says I need to do a step up starter, was hoping to do that last night and brew tomorrow. Thoughts?

 

[IslandLizard]

Are both pictures above^ taken at the same time? I don't see the thick foam from #1 in #2.
The thin "gray layer" on the bottom could be a mixture of dead and precipitated live yeast.

Judging by the yeasty foam (krausen) in pic #1, she's healthy!
Is this starter meant for a 19 liter (5 gallon) batch of 1.050 OG beer?

What size is that bottle, how much wort did you use (or how much starter beer) is in pic#2?
I'm asking because the amount (and gravity) of wort used in the starter will determine how much growth there will be.

It's best to use a yeast calculator as a guide to estimate the amount of cells to pitch.
http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php
There are big differences in growth rate depending on the growth method used, e.g., intermittent swirling vs. continuous stirring on a stir plate vs. Shaken-not Stirred (S-n-S).

 

[davidtraher]

Yes, pictures are taken at the same time. I thought the top looked good too. Correct on the batch size, OG was supposed to be 1.047 but was 1.054. Bottle is 4 litres/1 gallon, with 1 litre of water.

I used the BU calculator as well, it said I need to do the step up starter, but this sure doesn't look like I think it was supposed too.