New to making yeast starter question

[beyonder74]

I made my first yeast starter yesterday and I am questioning if I did it correctly. I boiled 400ml of water and 1/4 cup of light DME for 15 minutes. I rapidly cooled it to 75 degrees and pitched the vial of White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale. It has been sitting in the flask for 27 hours and I have not seen any activity. I had an airlock on it for about 16 hours then I removed it and put some foil loosely on it.

Have I done something wrong? I though I should have some activity so I could pitch it after 24 hours of making the starter. The vial of yeast said it was good until the end of December, so I hope that is not the problem.

Any suggestions on my next steps?

Thanks.

 

[Revvy]

What do you define as "no activity" for your starters? There is very little activity with making starters, rarely do they bubble, even more rarely is there a krausen that we see. The only true activity that most of us see is just a creamy band at the bottom when it flocculates out.

Starters are some of the most "un-exciting" fermentations ever.

That one is cold crashed, but even if it is a t room temp, you should see the sediment in the bottom. I use a stirplate, but usually stop it a few hours early to let it settle.

 

[beyonder74]

What do you define as "no activity" for your starters? There is very little activity with making starters, rarely do they bubble, even more rarely is there a krausen that we see. The only true activity that most of us see is just a creamy band at the bottom when it flocculates out.

Starters are some of the most "un-exciting" fermentations ever.

You are right, I have not seen any typical activity. I do see the yeast at the bottom, but am not sure it has increased. I am the stir plate, and I have been swirling it every couple of hours. I will leave it be and see how it settles out. I believe mine looked like your picture when I got home this afternoon.

Should I be ok to pitch the yeast if I brew tomorrow? Should I leave it room temperature until time to pitch?

Thanks.

 

[mordantly]

add a hop pellet or 4. you'll see a teeny weeny froth and it makes it quite tasty when you consume the decanted beer. if its in the fridge, pull it out to warm prior to pitching. don't shock the yeast more then needed. i pull it out and stir at 600 rpm while im chilling the wort.

 

[Revvy]

Y

Should I be ok to pitch the yeast if I brew tomorrow? Should I leave it room temperature until time to pitch?

Thanks.

It will be fine to pitch tomorrow, and I leave mine warm and don't crash cool, the pic was just from the web.

The thing is, even if it's NOT ready...a starter that at least is beginning to work, is STILL BETTER than pitching yeast without a starter. And POSSIBLY better than delaying pitching and leaving a wort sitting un yeasted, and vulnerable to other micro-organisms.

It may not be ideal, but if the yeast have woken up to start tackling your starter, than it going to be less of a shock for them if you dumped them into your wort.

There's is some thought that with starters the best time to pitch them is at "High Krausen" that means during active fermentation of the starter, NOT as we often do, after the yeast has flocculated. More than likely you are going to be close to high krausen at 12-14 hours, meaning the yeast will be pretty active, and if you pitch everything in you will be dumping yeasts that should be past the lag and starting to wake up.

I once had a brew schedule change and pitched a combination of a 10 hour starter and an extra tube of the same yeast which I picked up on the way to the brew, and fermentation took off really fast.

 

[beyonder74]

Sounds good. I will stick with it and brew. My plan was to brew today but things got in the way and I was unable to and a little cautious since I did not think the starter was ready. I will use it tomorrow and try to report back in a couple of days about my success.

Thanks.

 

[dysco]

I've been fooling around with starters. My first was a starter I pulled off a yeast cake from a primary. I foolishly bottled some yeast (mostly foolish if you don't crack the cap right after you pull it out of the fridge) in a 12oz bottle and tossed it in the fridge for a few days. Later I added the bottle to 16oz of whipped 1.040 wort. The solution started swirling itself around after 15 minutes. I pitched it after 5 hours in a 1.070 stout and had bubbles rolling through the airlock in 30 minutes.

I've made a few other "yeast babies" with great results and now I'm moving on to try to culture improbable things- like what's left 2 weeks after pitching from an unrinsed White Labs vial. It's far cheaper than brewing a whole batch of beer, and much faster in terms of entertainment.

I guess the moral is that it's hard to mess up a starter. It's yeast, it wants to eat.

 

[mordantly]

I guess the moral is that it's hard to mess up a starter. It's yeast, it wants to eat.

i'll drink to that!

 

[Dogslovebeer]

I had the same thing happen with that same yeast a month ago, it didn't look like anything had happened, it smelled fine tasted fine, so I decanted the beer off and fed it some more wort and it went nuts. two days later I brewed with it. I just finished a glass of the the hefe I made with it one of the best yet, I'm really happy with the way that yeast did its job. The only difference is I pitch 62-64.

 

[beyonder74]

Thanks for all the encouragement. I pitched the yeast starter and had activity in under 20 hours.

Next step I think I am going to try is to harvest this yeast for my next batch. That is for another day!

Here is a nice picture of my happy yeast.

 

[aksea102]

I promise I am not trying to take over this thread...just one quick question (I am a noobie).
Why is it that airlocks for starters seem to be frowned upon by some homebrewers??

 

[dysco]

I promise I am not trying to take over this thread...just one quick question (I am a noobie).
Why is it that airlocks for starters seem to be frowned upon by some homebrewers??

I think it's because the yeast need oxygen to reproduce. An airlock guarantees that CO2 levels will continually rise while foil allows for some kind of air flow and less pressure in your vessel. A sanitized pece of foil and an extract bucket is all you really need for a starter from a packet or vial since you really only need it to run for 2-24 hours. The more yeast you start with, the less time it'll need.

Of course, you could do what I've done with yeast I'm trying to culture from a beer and put it in a growler with an airlock and pull the airlock occasionally with good clean technique and swirl the whole mess around. I set the airlock in a pitcher of sanitizer while I'm swirling. Nothing's perfect. Again, that's not really necessary unless you're exposing the food you made for your yeast to other critters for extended periods of time.