My starter doesn't look right

[Turk10mm]

So i'm doing a blonde and i'm using White Labs German Ale/Kolsch 029. Yesterday morning I pitched into a 1 liter starter that had 4 ounces of extra pale dme and 1/8tsp fermax previously boiled and cooled.

This is the first starter that never gave me any kind of its own krausen. I know its doing its thing only when i swirl it and i can see the co2 bubbles coming out of solution. So that's the first weird thing, the second weird thing is that its already starting to floculate to the bottom after 36 hours at 70 degrees ambient. Its making a chunky/flaky hard yeast cake. My experience with yeast starters left me with a soft gravy like yeast cake. In order to get the yeast cake to loosen i have to vigorously swirl it up.

Is this because my yeast is different than anything i've used before? Its got me a little worried because its so different.

Anyways, I'm brewing tomorrow, so I hope its gtg. I just dropped it in the fridge to cold crash it and will check it out in the morning.

 

[rhumbunctious]

So i'm doing a blonde and i'm using White Labs German Ale/Kolsch 029. Yesterday morning I pitched into a 1 liter starter that had 4 ounces of extra pale dme and 1/8tsp fermax previously boiled and cooled.

This is the first starter that never gave me any kind of its own krausen. I know its doing its thing only when i swirl it and i can see the co2 bubbles coming out of solution. So that's the first weird thing, the second weird thing is that its already starting to floculate to the bottom after 36 hours at 70 degrees ambient. Its making a chunky/flaky hard yeast cake. My experience with yeast starters left me with a soft gravy like yeast cake. In order to get the yeast cake to loosen i have to vigorously swirl it up.

Is this because my yeast is different than anything i've used before? Its got me a little worried because its so different.

Anyways, I'm brewing tomorrow, so I hope its gtg. I just dropped it in the fridge to cold crash it and will check it out in the morning.

I just pitched a starter (1 liter, 100g DME) of White Labs WLP568 Belgian Style Saison Ale Yeast Blend, first time ever using a White Labs yeast, and didn't see even a trace of krausen, but still kept giving it a swirl each time I walked past, and after 36 hours there was 2+ cm of yeast sediment on the bottom of the flask, so there was definitely a party going on in there.

Sounds to me like you're good to go.

 

[MBasile]

WLP029 is supposedly a medium flocculator, so I wouldn't expect it to be clumpy, but I wouldn't be worried if it did clump. As for the visible krausen, you aren't always going to see that from a starter. It can come and go in the middle of the night without you knowing, except for a slight ring above the liquid line, which would be washed away by your swirling.

Taste it and smell it.

 

[JeffB]

Both times Ive used the Kolsch yeast Ive had exactly the results your seeing. Its worked perfectly in both batches of beer so I say, your fine.

 

[Turk10mm]

sounds good, thanks for the responses. It looks normal this morning and is now warming to room temp.