Over Stressed Yeast Starter?

[nayr14]

Yesterday I pitched White Labs 001 (with a best by of 1/16/2014) in a yeast starter on my new DIY stir plate. I boiled 200G of light DME in 2L of water for what ended up being about 15 minutes. When I poured it into the flask some of it spilled... I ended up with just over 1.5L. I believe the true volume was about 1.7L and I spilled/evaporated while cooking 200mL. It seems to have a large krausen ring.

According to this calculator my starter has a gravity of 1.045 and along with the older yeast I'm concerned that it's being stressed. Should I worry about an off flavor in the beer I'm brewing with this?

 

[dcp27]

not sure where the concern is from, totally fine. that krausen is a dead give away

 

[nayr14]

not sure where the concern is from, totally fine. that krausen is a dead give away

I've read that the upper limit is 1.040 before the yeast might become stressed, but mine is at least 1.045 or higher with not very many yeast cells. I was afraid that the lack of sells and a higher gravity might stress the cells? Maybe I don't understand what is meant by stressed yeast cells.

 

[pabloj13]

I've read that the upper limit is 1.040 before the yeast might become stressed, but mine is at least 1.045 or higher with not very many yeast cells. I was afraid that the lack of sells and a higher gravity might stress the cells? Maybe I don't understand what is meant by stressed yeast cells.

You didn't really have that few cells. Probably on the order of 20-40 billion depending on which viability calculator you are looking at. When people refer to few cells they are normally talking about culturing millions of cells out of a bottle or something. You're fine.

 

[dcp27]

the upper limit before stressed/weak cells is a concern is around 1.065, not 1.045. you got nothing to worry about

 

[Setesh]

Agreed, you are fine. Keeping it lower is best case, but as was mentioned above, you are far from doing damage.

 

[CharlosCarlies]

You're 100% fine.

A mid-size production brewery I interned at consistently re-pitched up to 10 generations from their 1.048-1.052 beers. They even showed me their fermentation logs, and there was little to no difference in performance and/or flavor.