Starter activity of harvested yeast

[PDevlin75]

Not terribly worried, but I'm curious....

Prior to bottling last weekend (Saturday night), I harvested the yeast from the batch into mason jars, and stored it in the fridge. Last night (4 days later), I made a starter from one of the jars... Nearly 24 hours later, and there's probably an inch of kraussen in the flask. All fine and well, right? When I initially bought the yeast for the batch I brewed a month ago (WLP 001), the kraussen of that starter was spilling out of the top of the flask!

Any thoughts on why this one is less active? Should I take that as a sign that perhaps I made a mistake when harvesting, or maybe the yeast is no longer active enough to ferment my next batch? Or do I forge ahead, content in the fact that there are signs of activity at all?

I'm planning to brew on Sunday, so I can still swing by my LHBS tomorrow to pick up fresh yeast and make a new starter, but I'm wondering if I should just keep doing what I'm doing and not concern myself in the disparity of activity?

More info: the OG of the batch I harvested from was 1.067, and I made a starter of 1.040... Is that a factor here?

Thanks!
Pete

 

[TriggerHappy]

Dude, I think you are just fine. I don't know why there was such a difference, maybe temp since things are starting to cool off at my house?But that yeast is ready to party. As long as you were clean in your harvesting. As the man says, "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew."

 

[PDevlin75]

Right on, I figured it ought to be okay... I guess I was just hoping for that satisfying overspill of kraussen that says it's more than a party in there!

I was as clean as I could be in harvesting... Boiled my jars and all that. And the starter itself barely smelled of anything, much less anything "bad", so I doubt there was any contamination.

Guess I was just afraid that they were already tapping out. But I suppose they're doing something! It was a day and a half on the stir plate before the kraussen disappated. Got it crashing in the fridge so I can decant and pitch on Sunday.

Thanks!
Pete

 

[hottpeper13]

That happens to me too and I think it's from overpitching the starter. When my time line is the same as yours I just put some fresh cooled wort in the jar to jump start and pitch at high krausen or so around 4 hours later. You'll be fine.

 

[RLinNH]

What a timely thread for me. I also harvested some yeast, although mine was the Giga Yeast Vermont IPA GY054. I made my starter on Thursday evening, and Friday morning I had no signs of activity. Came home from work on Friday, and all I had was a very thin layer of krausen ( I did a 2 liter starter with 200 grams of ELDME. Also, this yeast was harvested 7 weeks ago). Last night I stopped in at my LHBS an grabbed a couple packets of S05, just in case. But this morning, both of my starters had a nice 1" head of krausen. I think that the yeasties were stored at 35 degrees for so long, it took a bit for them to wake up. Anywho, I'm pitching the yeast in about 3 hours. I'll let you know tomorrow how things are. If I were you, I'd have a couple of packets of S05 on hand, just in case.

 

[RLinNH]

WOW!!! My yeast took off like a rocket. I checked on my carboys this morning at 0500 Hrs, and both of them already had wort being blown off into the blow off container. Super excited that the harvested yeast is working out!

 

[PDevlin75]

Yeah, I brewed on Sunday, and pitched the starter maybe around 11 pm or so... 12 hours later and things were looking good! Another 8 hours and things were bubbling along fantastically!

Maybe I'm wrong, but my assumption is that the lesser activity of the starter may have been due to going from a 1.063 beer down to a 1.035 starter. Now that it's back in a 1.070 wort, things are much more active!