I ordered a WYeast 2112 California Lager smack pack, but didn't bother with cold shipping because it takes 5-7 days for my shipments to arrive and I figured any protection would be long gone by then. I threw the yeast in the refrigerator when I got it and left it for a week.
Thursday morning, I let it come to room temperature for about 3 hours before I activated it and left it for 3-4 hours while I brewed up another batch of beer. I noticed it had hardly swollen, if at all, but went ahead and threw it into the starter recommended on the package (cut the starter in half - 1cup DME to 1 liter of water instead of twice that), planning to brew on Friday afternoon.
As of late Friday night, there was zero activity. No bubbles, no foam, and the sediment on the bottom was not increasing (marked the level with a sharpie), nor did the starter smell like anything other than wort. I don't have a stir plate, and I know a 2-liter soda bottle is hardly the ideal starter vessel, but it's what I had handy that could hold that size starter, and I swirled the starter probably every hour or so all day Friday to keep the yeast in suspension as much as possible.
This morning, I got up to find that the sediment had changed colors and there's some foam when swirled, although no obvious bubbles. You really can't see it in the picture, but there's three distinct color layers - wort colored red/brown on the bottom, medium gray, then white on top. The smell has changed, as well, though I'm not familiar enough yet with brewing to know if it's correct or not. Doesn't smell bad.
I'm hoping it's good, just a slow starting pack, but I have no experience with liquid yeast to compare it to. So far I've only used beer yeast three times, all dry yeast. The Nottingham never took off (never even seemed to rehydrate, for that matter) and I pitched it (down the drain, not into a batch), and two separate packets of Safale US-05 had been rehydrated, run through a starter, pitched, and practically finished fermenting in the time it's taken this yeast to form a bubble.
I'd like to brew today, as I won't get the chance for at least another week, but I'm worried that this starter might be bad. Think I should risk it? Is this the norm for a liquid yeast? A lager, anyway?
Thursday morning, I let it come to room temperature for about 3 hours before I activated it and left it for 3-4 hours while I brewed up another batch of beer. I noticed it had hardly swollen, if at all, but went ahead and threw it into the starter recommended on the package (cut the starter in half - 1cup DME to 1 liter of water instead of twice that), planning to brew on Friday afternoon.
As of late Friday night, there was zero activity. No bubbles, no foam, and the sediment on the bottom was not increasing (marked the level with a sharpie), nor did the starter smell like anything other than wort. I don't have a stir plate, and I know a 2-liter soda bottle is hardly the ideal starter vessel, but it's what I had handy that could hold that size starter, and I swirled the starter probably every hour or so all day Friday to keep the yeast in suspension as much as possible.
This morning, I got up to find that the sediment had changed colors and there's some foam when swirled, although no obvious bubbles. You really can't see it in the picture, but there's three distinct color layers - wort colored red/brown on the bottom, medium gray, then white on top. The smell has changed, as well, though I'm not familiar enough yet with brewing to know if it's correct or not. Doesn't smell bad.
I'm hoping it's good, just a slow starting pack, but I have no experience with liquid yeast to compare it to. So far I've only used beer yeast three times, all dry yeast. The Nottingham never took off (never even seemed to rehydrate, for that matter) and I pitched it (down the drain, not into a batch), and two separate packets of Safale US-05 had been rehydrated, run through a starter, pitched, and practically finished fermenting in the time it's taken this yeast to form a bubble.
I'd like to brew today, as I won't get the chance for at least another week, but I'm worried that this starter might be bad. Think I should risk it? Is this the norm for a liquid yeast? A lager, anyway?
