Several months ago, I brewed two batches of Centennial Blonde from the recipe on this site, but used Conan as suggested by Braufessor in the NE IPA thread. The idea is that first generation Conan attenuates poorly, so use that first gen on a small beer and save the slurry to create future generations that attenuate better. I've gone from a FG of 1.020 to 1.010 using this practice.
I decided I want to brew next week. All I had left was three Mason pint jars, each with a few ounces of slurry beneath several more ounces of beer. The jars are all pretty old, maybe 4-6 months, so I did not expect much from them.
I decided I needed to do a starter late this morning, so I could toss it in the fridge tomorrow night, and then use it next week to make a larger starter.
I had very little free time this AM, so I decided to get stupid. I forgot to take the jars from the fridge until it was time to start boiling the water. I did not have time for the jars to get to room temp on their own, so I ran a few inches of almost hot water in the sink, and put the jars into the water. I'd like to think that I took them out before they actually got warm, but who knows for sure.
Anyway, one of the jars started to bubble quite a bit in the sink. I took that as a sign of life. Was I right?
So, a pint of RO water on the stove, and a little less than a half cup of light pilsner DME added to the boil. I boiled for 15 minutes, then cooled the pan in an ice bath while decanting all three jars and pouring the slurry into a 1L flask. I added a bit of yeast nutrient, poured in the pilsner and set my new Maelstrom stirplate on low.
The last few times I made a starter from this Conan, it seemed like I got a lot of krausen fairly quickly. But I did not take notes and it may have been overnight each time.
Anyhoo, after about eight hours on the stir plate, I have only a tiny ring of foam around the edge to show for my trouble. The foam could be the result of agitation alone, although it doesn't seem to go away when I turn the stir plate off.
Long story short: When do I declare this yeast dead and more on to a new pack? Is there anything more to be done to save this yeast?
I decided I want to brew next week. All I had left was three Mason pint jars, each with a few ounces of slurry beneath several more ounces of beer. The jars are all pretty old, maybe 4-6 months, so I did not expect much from them.
I decided I needed to do a starter late this morning, so I could toss it in the fridge tomorrow night, and then use it next week to make a larger starter.
I had very little free time this AM, so I decided to get stupid. I forgot to take the jars from the fridge until it was time to start boiling the water. I did not have time for the jars to get to room temp on their own, so I ran a few inches of almost hot water in the sink, and put the jars into the water. I'd like to think that I took them out before they actually got warm, but who knows for sure.
Anyway, one of the jars started to bubble quite a bit in the sink. I took that as a sign of life. Was I right?
So, a pint of RO water on the stove, and a little less than a half cup of light pilsner DME added to the boil. I boiled for 15 minutes, then cooled the pan in an ice bath while decanting all three jars and pouring the slurry into a 1L flask. I added a bit of yeast nutrient, poured in the pilsner and set my new Maelstrom stirplate on low.
The last few times I made a starter from this Conan, it seemed like I got a lot of krausen fairly quickly. But I did not take notes and it may have been overnight each time.
Anyhoo, after about eight hours on the stir plate, I have only a tiny ring of foam around the edge to show for my trouble. The foam could be the result of agitation alone, although it doesn't seem to go away when I turn the stir plate off.
Long story short: When do I declare this yeast dead and more on to a new pack? Is there anything more to be done to save this yeast?
