Yeast Starter, not so much?

[buzzno]

Hello everyone, I've been reading and learning for quite awhile here but this is my first post. I'm pretty new to brewing and only have 3 extracts under my belt but I'm jumping into all grain this weekend. Tomorrow to be exact. So I started a starter on Wednesday night with 1 cup of DME to 1000ml of water, boiled it for about 15 minutes, cooled it in an ice bath to 67 degrees which is the fermentation temp of the brew I'm starting and then pitched my yeast which is a White Labs WLP002. It's been 48 hours and I haven't seen any activity or krausen forming. I'm wondering if I damaged the yeast somehow or if I did something wrong?

Here's how I pitched the yeast:
- First took it out of the fridge and put it in my sweats pocket to warm up about 3 hours before pitching.
- Shook it up pretty good like the instructions on the bottle say.
- When the wort cooled I covered the lid and shook it up pretty good to airate it.
- Pitched the yeast in and gave it another good shake.
- I've had it sitting in my basement since then that is at 65 degrees. I know that yeast warms up when it gets going so being cooler then 67 I thought was ok.
- I have been going down there and stirring it up a bit whenever I think about it.

Is my starter ruined? What did I do wrong? Do I need to go buy another batch of yeast tomorrow before my session?

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Sometimes starters can ferm out without you noticing any activity. Do have a pretty good layer of yeast at the bottom? Can you post a pic?

 

[kh54s10]

You probably did nothing wrong. Starters don't always show signs of fermentation like a full beer.

Is there a change in color of the wort? Is the layer on the bottom bigger?
Take a gravity reading.

I don't know your starting gravity. You should do your measurements by weight instead of volume which is inaccurate due to the density of the material in the measuring cup.

 

[buzzno]

Here's a picture of it. Looks like I have a good layer on the bottom and the color has changed from a tan to a more golden color.

I didn't take a starting gravity reading. Should I be doing that? My gravity right now is 1.016.

Good suggestion kh54s10 about measuring by weight instead of volume. I'll start doing that.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Here's a picture of it. Looks like I have a good layer on the bottom and the color has changed from a tan to a more golden color.

I didn't take a starting gravity reading. Should I be doing that? My gravity right now is 1.016.

Good suggestion kh54s10 about measuring by weight instead of volume. I'll start doing that.

Picture didn't post, but it sounds like you're ok since it changed color and you have a hefty layer of yeast.

 

[buzzno]

Not sure why my pic didn't post. Is there an issue with posting pictures linked from Google Picasa on this forum? It's the direct link...

So should I not worry about it and go ahead and use it tomorrow?

Thanks again.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

So should I not worry about it and go ahead and use it tomorrow?

Yes and yes.

 

[buzzno]

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[Pappers_]

Sounds like it worked. I never get krausen on my starters.

Good luck on your brew!

 

[buzzno]

It did work. I pitched last night around 10pm and by 7am this morning it was starting to bubble nicely. Now I have to look into harvesting so I can re-use it.