Weird looking starter

[Yesfan]

I made a starter for a brown ale I'm hoping to brew this weekend. I made the starter last night with some 2-3 month old slurry from my last beer (an ESB). I pitched about 8oz of Wyeast 1968 slurry into 1100mL of wort. I come home today, and the starter, to me, doesn't look right. It looks like chunks of yeast are being stirred around by the stir plate. I took a pic of the bottom of the flask, and it looks like sand.

Have I let the slurry set too long and all the cells have died? There was a little bit of "sweat" on the inside of the flask, so I'm thinking some fermention has happened. I don't want to make this beer, pitch the yeast to see nothing happen.

When I used this yeast before in the ESB, fermentation really took off in a matter of hours. Even the starter I made back then had a decent looking krausen on it. This time around, nothing so I'm concerned.

 

[Skep18]

I'm not sure if the color variation in the photo is just protein material from a starter wort or if you should be concerned (though I doubt you should be), however I have used yeast which was older than that, at least 4-5 months old with no issues.

If you know what your SG was roughly to begin with you cna take a SG reading to see if it has lowered to a typical FG range. If so I'm not sure I'd worry too much about it. IME yeast has done some funny things depending on the strain/age/season/etc and I've not had anything turn out bad directly because of yeast that I can recall. YMMV.

 

[bayoujeeper]

I use 1968 often, and when the starter is finished it looks like cottage cheese floating around in there.. as soon as I turn the stir plate off, it immediately drops out.
I would say it looks normal to me.

 

[flars]

That was a lot of basically fresh yeast to pitch into a small starter. WY 1968 yeast is a highly flocculant yeast. Starters with it are usually described as looking like egg drop soup. You're okay.

 

[Yesfan]

That was a lot of basically fresh yeast to pitch into a small starter. WY 1968 yeast is a highly flocculant yeast. Starters with it are usually described as looking like egg drop soup. You're okay.

If it's done, then that was the quickest I've ever made a starter. I made that last night. It's not even 24 hours old. Do you (or anyone else) think I used to much slurry/too little wort? Would that be ok to pitch and if so, should I let the stir plate keep running, or go ahead and cold crash it til Saturday?

 

[Skep18]

Do you have a refractometer? If so, take a reading. If it's low, cold crash.

8oz of slurry for 1.1L of wort seems like a lot of yeast to me. I usually make starters with a lot less. I know with new packs I've definitely had starters finish before 24hr myself. Seeing fermentation krausen only ensures the yeast is visibly viable though that might not always be present.

 

[Yesfan]

Do you have a refractometer? If so, take a reading. If it's low, cold crash.

8oz of slurry for 1.1L of wort seems like a lot of yeast to me. I usually make starters with a lot less. I know with new packs I've definitely had starters finish before 24hr myself. Seeing fermentation krausen only ensures the yeast is visibly viable though that might not always be present.

Yeah, I have a refractometer. I'll take a reading and cold crash if it's low.


Thanks for the help gang.

 

[flars]

Let it run as long as the yeasty krausen layer is present. You've just made some alcohol, so a refractometer won't give you a true reading.

 

[Skep18]

Let it run as long as the yeasty krausen layer is present. You've just made some alcohol, so a refractometer won't give you a true reading.

Not all fermentations make a large krausen layer especially if it's over pitched.

While alcohol creates an error factor in refractometer readings it will still read very different than pre-fermentation and give him what he needs to know.

For more information in refractometers, Northern Brewer was written this article.