Starter Concern

[Smokedaddy]

I made a starter last night using White Labs Irish Ale WLP004. I used the manufactures suggestions of 2 pints h20 and 1/2 cup dme. I've made previous starters but they have been smack packs and more dme. Starters using the smack packs resulted in a healthy kraeusen. The Irish Ale has little to no kraeusen after 14hrs on the stir plate. Should I risk using the starter or scrap it and use other yeast?

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

I had some issues lately with some vials of liquid yeast that I believe were due to high temperatures during shipping. When I made starters with these vials, there was no noticeable signs of fermentation after 48 hours. 14 hours isn't an extremely long period of time, so I'd wait a bit longer and see what happens before deciding what to do.

Has the color of the starter changed? As the yeast grow, the starter should become cloudier and lighter in color. If this isn't happening, that could be one sign of a problem.

If you turn off the stir plate for a while do you see CO2 bubbles coming out of the liquid? If you do, your yeast are working fine and may just need a bit more time to fully take off.

If the color isn't changing and you don't see bubbles with the stir plate off, you might have a bad vial for some reason. In either case, I'd give it at least 12 more hours on the stir plate before you do anything.

The Homebrew Nerd
thehomebrewnerd.com

 

[Smokedaddy]

The shipping temperature was a concern of mine also. Thanks for the advise.

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

The shipping temperature was a concern of mine also. Thanks for the advise.

No problem. I actually had three bad White Labs vials from two different stores, which was unusual as I have had good experiences with them in the past. I contacted White Labs directly about the issue and they sent me vouchers for three free vials to replace the bad ones. They stand by their product with good customer service, so if you think you did get a bad vial I wouldn't hesitate to contact them.

The Homebrew Nerd
thehomebrewnerd.com