Dead yeast starter

[bguzz]

I had a 9 month old pack of Gigayeast GY054 (conan strain) and did a 2L starter of boiled DME at 1.040 on my stirplate. Nothing happened for 2 days, so I assume the yeast was dead (checked gravity...nothing changed) (first time EVER...I always got something with old yeast). So I had an older pack of Nottinham (BBD 7/2013) and I dumped that into the starter since I didn't want to waste it.

I never used notty before and though I could build it up for a IIPA I am brewing. I figured I could build up the notty if it was weak from being old (yeah, I now dry yeast doesn't need a starter, but I am trying to build a lot of yeast) and the dead yeast from the Conan could be food for it? Bad idea?

 

[ColoHox]

2L is way too large of volume starter for a yeast in poor health.

In retrospect, it would have been better for you to just rehydrate and pitch the notty (2 packs perhaps) than to combine the two. If you do pitch this, all that dead yeast could contribute off-flavors to your batch. You might consider washing the fresh yeast to separate it from the dead stuff. Or just pitch a new sachet.

 

[bguzz]

thanks for the response.

I don't have more notty, but I do have some US-05. I was thinking the starter of notty would consume the dead yeast? will that not be the case? I'm cold crashing it now. I was thinking of doing another 2L starter after decanting what's in there...will I still have lots of dead yeast? or will the starter in the second phase eat the dead yeast?

 

[ColoHox]

Another starter will help, but the healthy yeast wont actually consume the dead yeast. Instead, they will just use some of the available lipids from the broken cell walls. It will probably make for a pretty healthy starter.

 

[kh54s10]

When using old yeast I do a 250 ml starter of about 1.020 so I don't "shock" the yeast too much. Then step it up with about 1.040 additions. In this case I would say that using the starter for the Notty is appropriate. The dead cells will nourish the healthy yeast, how I don't know. Having them in the wort should not cause any problems, IMO.