Yeast Starter Botched?

[thompsng]

I made my first yeast starter last night in anticipation of brewing today. I followed the directions in Palmer's book but so far, approx 15 hr in, I have seen no activity at all. The liquid looks very cloudy and I cannot see any yeast accumulation on the bottom of the jar. The starter ended up consisting of about a half pint of liquid into which a half cup of amber DME was dissolved. Am I able to use this starter still? Do I need to wait? Is this starter too small to notice activity? Or have I somehow screwed this starter up? I did not take a reading but could the SG have been too high?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

 

[terrapinj]

check out Revy's reply in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/no-signs-life-starter-228678/

 

[sjbeerman]

Unless you are trying to restart a stuck fermentation or revive really old yeast, then a half pint of starter is way too small. Personally, I wouldn't make a starter that is less than 1 L.

 

[EyePeeEh]

A half cup of DME in a cup of water? That seems crazy off. I use 100g/ liter.

 

[thompsng]

Thanks terrapinj, that thread has some good info. As per Palmer's book I boiled 470 milliliters of water for about 10 min and added 1/2 cup of DME. I lost about have the water to evaporation. This being my first starter, I really didn't know what to expect. The wort I am planing on pitching this yeast to is not going to have that high of an OG, around 1.055-1.060, so I thought that a smaller starter would be alright, as opposed to a lager one closer to 1 liter. I think that I will go ahead and pitch my yeast solution and see what happens. I mean, if anything I should still have close to the original cell count I had when I pitched to the starter right? Would having the yeast sit in that solution for around 20 hrs before I pitch to the main wort hurt those little guys?

 

[terrapinj]

when are you brewing?

you can always step up your starter if its not for a few days

per mr malty you generally don't want to do a starter from a fresh packet of yeast that is less than 1L

here's some more info on starters, sizes etc
http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.htm

 

[Snowhere]

My first starter took a few days to get active. So I just kept my carboy capped off untill I was ready to pitch. I figured since I had starsaned my carboy and the cap, and the wort was clean from the boil, it could sit a few days until I had enough yeast for the job. I just bottled that batch and it tasted fine at bottling time so I think it will come out just fine.

 

[thompsng]

I did not end up brewing yesterday so I think I will take my half pint of starter and try to step it up to a liter. I will certianly be adding yeast nutrient to the liter starter. It will have been sitting in a 70-75 F room for about 48 hrs. Should this work fine or should I start over with a fresh vial?

I am brewing a belgian style with projected a OG of 1.055-1.060. I will be using WLP 500. I have another belgian that has not gotten below 1.030 so I was going to rack that onto the yeast cake that this new beer will produce. Becasue of this I want to make sure that there are plenty of yeast to do the job of fermenting the first beer so it is not too worn out to finish up the second.

 

[BSBrewer83]

www.mrmalty.com is a great place for all your yeasty needs
:rockin:

 

[jetmac]

There are two main reasons for a starter.

1) To wake the yeast up and get their legs stretched. You can do this with a couple of vials or smack packs. Or a starter you have already made and chilled. This uses .5-1L of starter wort

2) To grow yeast to make a bigger starter. There is a minimum amount of yeast you want to use to ferment with. Thsi uses anywhere between 2L and 5L or more of starter wort depending on a few things. Gravity, batch size, type of yeast.

Generally you make a .5L starter to wake your yeast up if you are not planning to grow any yeast. This takes about 5-6 hours. You can pitch 2 vials or 2 smack packs for a beer of this gravity.

Basically, if you want to grow yeast from 1 vile or smack pack to get to the desired amount of yeast for your beer, you pitch 1 vile or smack pack into 1.5 to 2L of starter wort(minimum). Shake intermittenly over a period of 12-15 hours. Or let it ferment out 24-36 hours. Let it sit at room temp a few hours then chill it. When ready to pitch, put you starter on the counter for 4-5 hours then decant and add .5L of fresh starter. After 5-6 hours this will be ready to pitch.

You can step up the starter you have already made by decanting and adding 2L of fresh starter wort.

I think you may have misunderstood what Palmer wrote or maybe it's from the old free version online.