Fermentation start times with a starter?

[psuhammer14]

Hello everyone!

I made a batch of porter last night which required white labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast.

This is the 1st time I made a yeast starter and I have some concerns. My prior batches have been "smack packs" which bloomed up really nicely. Making a starter was foreign to me and I am starting to wonder if I messed up my beer.

I added the starter to my cooled wort, last night at 7:15 pm. the wort was at 76% when I pitched it. As of now, 7 hrs later there is no sign of active fermentation in my blowoff tube container. I know it can take up to 24 hrs for fermentation to be seen, but what are the chances that using a starter would not show any signs 7 hrs later?

Below is the process that I used to create the starter...
1.) boil 2 cups of water
2.)add 1 cup DME and boil for 10 min
3.)cool covered until about 75 degrees
4.) added my yeast after shaking it well. The yeast was out of the fridge for only about 20 minutes. I wasn't able to find out if the yeast needed to be at room temp before adding to the starter, so I wonder if the yeast being to cold is affecting it.
5.) capped the container loosely with sanitized aluminum foil allowing for air to get in.
6.) this sat for about 19 hrs and i swirled it in the container every few hours.

My full batch was at 75 degrees when I pitched the starter into it last night at 7:15pm. the primary fermenter has been showing a temp on the side of the bucket to be 70-72.

Any idea if something is going wrong since no active fermentation is happening? At what point do I consider getting another tube of yeast and pitching that into the beer without doing another starter? Is that even possible/recommended to do?

 

[podz]

With a proper sized starter, I have seen things get rolling in about 20 minutes.

It seems to me that your starter was both too high gravity as well as too small volume. 1 cup of DME would be more appropriate for 1 litre (or more) of water.

2 litre starter is my normal size, but then if you're doing a big beer then you might need even to go even larger.

 

[psuhammer14]

my LHBS recomended that starter configuration, so I went with it. What are my options here, will fermentation not start? What is the impact of having the gravity to high in the starter?

 

[podz]

my LHBS recomended that starter configuration, so I went with it. What are my options here, will fermentation not start? What is the impact of having the gravity to high in the starter?

Too much sugar has a negative impact on osmosis - makes it difficult for yeast cells to take in water which they need to reproduce, i.e. your starter probably didn't reproduce as much yeast as it should have.

If it's not started by 48 hours from pitch time, then you probably need more yeast. What was the starting gravity of your batch?

 

[psuhammer14]

The OG was 1.065, right as it should be.

I checked it again just now and there is a steady stream of bubbles from the blowoff hose. I hope that since the starter is in the bigger batch that it will reproduce as it should and the beer will be ok.

Do you have a good recipe for a starter you like to use, or are they too different depending on the type of beer being brewed?

 

[podz]

Do you have a good recipe for a starter you like to use, or are they too different depending on the type of beer being brewed?

Make your starter at 1.045. You can use the same starter recipe for every beer, i.e. light spray malt is just fine.

 

[skwieland]

Starter should use 150 grams DME to 1500 ml water. Make sure starter and yeast temps are within 10% of each other or you could shock the yeast.


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