First starter one day in

[Aedan382]

I made my first starter yesterday and everything went ok, but today when I went to swirl my flask, I noticed what looked like wax pieces spinning around. My first thought is that it is some kind of trub that fell out of suspension. I smelled it through my foam stopper and it smells like fermenting wort, nothing funky.
Am I being paranoid?

Edit: photo uploaded 20 minutes after swirling, fell back down looks just like yeast cake.

Yeah I think I'm paranoid, but I'm making this beer for a big birthday party for a buddy of mine, so I want it to turn out well, and never having done a starter, I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. It hasn't produced any krausen yet, that's why the waxy look of the stuff confused me.

 

[skelrad]

Am I being paranoid?

Probably. Different yeasts behave differently - some yeasties just grab on for dear life to each other, so when you swirl gently they move in clumps. In all likelihood you're probably fine.

 

[Aedan382]

Ok so part two, should I just pitch the whole starter in? Or is it better to decant the wort off an just pitch the cake at the bottom of the flask? Kind of an informal poll.

 

[bottlebomber]

Ok so part two, should I just pitch the whole starter in? Or is it better to decant the wort off an just pitch the cake at the bottom of the flask? Kind of an informal poll.

Just pitch the whole starter. Its not that big. The "wax" was definitely yeast.

Usually if your going to decant a starter it is a pretty large one, and you will make it 3 or 4 days before you brew so it can have a good 36 hours to cold crash. There's a LOT of yeast in that thing besides what dropped down.

 

[Aedan382]

Ok. Thanks for the fast response. I'm going to pitch when I get home from work. I'm really looking forward to this beer.

 

[samc]

If I have the time to chill and decant I always do no matter the size of the starter.

 

[jetmac]

From the picture it looks like the yeast done fermenting and have flocculated to the bottom. So there is probably no more sugar in your wort for them to consume.

If the yeast have dropped out and are all on the bottom I would decant. Now, if you were making a starter using a stir plate and pitching 12-15 hours into it, you could pitch the whole thing because the yeast would still be suspended.

 

[headfullahops]

I had some WLP007 that was so flocculant, it looked like khaki cottage cheese about 30 seconds after I shut off the stir plate. I thought I was up a creek for sure. It fermented really well and floc'd out nice and bright.

 

[bottlebomber]

I had some WLP007 that was so flocculant, it looked like khaki cottage cheese about 30 seconds after I shut off the stir plate. I thought I was up a creek for sure. It fermented really well and floc'd out nice and bright.

The last time I used that strain it did this

 

[beergolf]

I had some WLP007 that was so flocculant, it looked like khaki cottage cheese about 30 seconds after I shut off the stir plate. I thought I was up a creek for sure. It fermented really well and floc'd out nice and bright.

I just did some 1968 that did the same thing. Chunky cottage cheese is a good description.

 

[Aedan382]

Ok. Pure starter noob moment:

Holy crap! That thing started fast!
Like 3 to 4 hours after I pitch my starter, my blow off growled is bubbling like mad and the wonderful smell is filling my den! I ne'er thought that the difference in lag time would be that profound.

 

[bottlebomber]

That's the only way to fly my friend... only thing better is pitching on a cake