Adding the Yeast Starter

[emace7]

Hi All,
I made a yeast starter for a hefeweizen brew, and I added it to my 5 gallon carboy yesterday.. I noticed after I was done pouring the flask into the carboy that there was still a bunch of yeast sediments at the bottom. It wasn't close to the amount of yeast that could fit in a vial. Should I be worried that I dont have enough yeast for fermentation and buy another vial to pour in? And for future brews should I mix the starter better before adding it?

thanks.

 

[bja]

And for future brews should I mix the starter better before adding it?

thanks.

Do we really need to answer this question?

 

[bja]

Hi All,
I made a yeast starter for a hefeweizen brew, and I added it to my 5 gallon carboy yesterday.. I noticed after I was done pouring the flask into the carboy that there was still a bunch of yeast sediments at the bottom. It wasn't close to the amount of yeast that could fit in a vial. Should I be worried that I dont have enough yeast for fermentation and buy another vial to pour in?

Nobody can answer this with any certainty without knowing how much yeast you actually did pitch.

 

[BansheeRider]

Yes, you should give the flask a good swirl before pitching to ensure all the yeast goes into the fermenter.

 

[emace7]

Any harm in adding another vial of yeast to be safe?

 

[freisste]

Do we really need to answer this question?

Dude, you have 1300+ posts. OP has 1 and counting. Give him a break. We were all there once.

 

[gcdowd]

I usually put my starter in the fridge once it's done fermenting. This helps the yeast settle to the bottom. On brew day, I'll take it out and decant most of the clear liquid on top, I leave some so I can swirl the yeast/trub back into solution. Then I pitch the resulting yeast solution. This ensures that I've pitched most of the yeast from the starter

 

[freisste]

Any harm in adding another vial of yeast to be safe?

Tough to say, because it will be hard to determine what you already pitched. If you already pitched enough, pitching more will make things worse. If you didn't pitch enough, pitching more will be better.

Did you swirl the starter at all to get yeast in suspension? If not, and you just dumped in the spent beer from the starter, you will probably be better off adding more. If you have it a good stir and got most, you are probably fine.

If you gave it a decent swirl, leave it alone and chalk this up as a rookie mistake. Otherwise, pitch some more ASAP.

 

[sniperd]

1) Give it a swirl, dump it in. Sure you can cold crash it and pour off the 'non-yeast' but whatever, just dump it in.
2) You can pretty much always put more yeast in. It's hard to over pitch. So if you spill half of your starter you can just direct pitch yeast into your fermeter.

 

[emace7]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the assistance.