Did I get enough growth in my starter?

[gkeusch]

I am kind of new to yeast propagation and am unsure if my starters are growing as they should. I have a stir plate but I can't seem to be able to tell by looking at my flask if the yeast are happily growing. I just made some slants from a vial of WP-004 (Irish ale yeast). After inoculating my slants I added the contents of the vial into 800ml of starter wort in a E-flask on my plate. After 24 hours or so it was a caramel color with a thin krausen on top but not what I would have expected. Nor could I pick up that yeasty smell. So I cold crashed it and ended up with at most a half-inch of slurry on the bottom. Is that about what I should have expected or did it not grow right? I don't think that would have been adequate for pitching 5 gallons? Should I pitch this slurry into another starter?

 

[JLeuck64]

Sounds about what I typically see. Post up a pic if you can.

Some yeast starters I make take off and make one hella Krausen while others just barely make any. In the end they all make a bigger colony though ( ;

 

[jimyoung]

I agree- sounds about right. Post a picture if you can.

 

[user 141939]

Sometimes what I do is take the starter off the stirplate. Sometimes they will start to form a Krausen when they are still. Or I will give it a good agitation and look closely near a light, If the yeast is growing then I'll see a lot of bubbles and I know somethings happening.