First yeast starter

[BigTerp]

Made my first starter this evening for my Fat Tire clone I plan to brew on Saturday. Pitched the Wyeast American Ale II activator pack about 4 hours ago. Been gently swirling it every so often. It's a 1.5 liter starter with 150 grams if light dme. Since I've never done this before I wanted to post a picture to see if it looks like it should to you guys. THANKS!!!

 

[Seven]

Looks nice but you may want to put that in a sink or inside a plastic tub or something. I'll bet you'll get some blowoff once the yeast get going.

 

[Pappers_]

Looking good!

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks guys. I'll stick it in the sink before I head to bed. I used two drops of fermcap during the boil so hopefullly it won't blow off to bad.

 

[jfrank85]

I made a makeshift starter vessel from a 1/2 gallon growler. All I did was drilled a hole just a little smaller than a tube and let it do its thing. Had activity after 3 hrs. Easy peezy.

 

[BigTerp]

This morning it still looks the same. No activity after about 12 hours. Hopefullly it takes off while I'm at work today!!!!

 

[Pappers_]

This morning it still looks the same. No activity after about 12 hours. Hopefullly it takes off while I'm at work today!!!!

Sometimes my starters don't have a krausen or one that I see at least. The real issue is whether there is a nice large yeast cake at the bottom.

 

[Ravenshead]

I've never seen a krausen on a starter. Pappers is right, just look for a nice cake on the bottom.

I usually cold crash mine the night before brew day so I can decant most of the liquid off the top before pitching.

 

[BigTerp]

It did seem to have a larger yeast cake on the bottom this morning. I'll take a pic when I get home to see what you guys think. Like a ******* I didn't take an SG of the starter wort, so I have nothing to compare it to if I take an SG this evening. Plan to brew tomorrow morning. Just concerned since this packet of yeast was on a UPS truck for three days then sat on my porch in the sun all afternoon yesterday with 100 degree temperatures. I do have a backup pack of Danstar Nottingham dry yeast just in case.

 

[tangofoxtrot308]

Hope mine turns out good! Pitched my 2nd one yesterday afternoon had a small cake this morning hard to tell if it is more than pitched. Been swirling it a every 30 mins all morning would like to brew tomorrow but will settle for Sun. I'll take the gravity after 24hrs see where it's at. If this one fells I'm going dry pack for awhile.

 

[Seven]

It did seem to have a larger yeast cake on the bottom this morning. I'll take a pic when I get home to see what you guys think. Like a ******* I didn't take an SG of the starter wort, so I have nothing to compare it to if I take an SG this evening. Plan to brew tomorrow morning. Just concerned since this packet of yeast was on a UPS truck for three days then sat on my porch in the sun all afternoon yesterday with 100 degree temperatures. I do have a backup pack of Danstar Nottingham dry yeast just in case.

It sounds like you really did your homework and you have a backup yeast as well. Awesome!

 

[BigTerp]

It sounds like you really did your homework and you have a backup yeast as well. Awesome!

Yeah, I wanted to be prepared. This is my first brew. I made a 25' IC earlier this week out of 1/2" copper. Tested my swamp cooler this week to and was able to hold a steady 62 degrees for a few days with no problem. I seem to have all my ducks in a row to brew tomorrow morning. I will probably go ahead and pitch my starter and see what happens. From everything I've been reading it is pretty damn hard to kill yeast. So hopefully it will work just fine. If nothing is happening my mid next week, I'll just pitch my dry yeast.

 

[Clementine]

Just concerned since this packet of yeast was on a UPS truck for three days then sat on my porch in the sun all afternoon yesterday with 100 degree temperatures. I do have a backup pack of Danstar Nottingham dry yeast just in case.

I think it might be dead, if you did not have it shipped with a cool pack it would most certainly be heavily affected by the high temperatures at best.

Good that you have a backup plan, I usually don't have one and have to cancel brew days when the starter does not work according to the plan!

I live in Hawaii heat is a real problem for us year round. I have taken to yeast ranching (about to do my first brew with it) since we have small population it is hard to have sufficient turn over @ the LHBS to keep yeast fresh, have had two stuck brews I put down to suspect yeast.

 

[BigTerp]

Clementine, I did have an ice pack shipped with my yeast. It was pretty warm when I got it though.

This is what my starter looked like this evening. 24 hours after pitching. The yeast cake looks a bit larger and now there is a layer of milky white. I'm thinking thats some new yeast and my starter was successful. What do you guys think?

 

[Clementine]

two guesses (not fact just an opinion),

Bad news -> trub from the hot break leads to increased mass at the bottom of the jar not all of it might be yeast??? A guess, did you allow the starter to settle before decanting into a second sanitized vessel? I only do this if I'm building a starter from slants otherwise i get a lot of accumulated trub. Has there been any bubbles rising through the solution at all? I know if I'm worried about a brew/starter I'm constantly checking it, at the annoyance of my wife!

Good new -> live yeast is white, dead yeast is brown? yours look really really white, sitting on top of trub

If you have time (minimum 24hrs), you could wash the yeast (or a rough approximation) if you put it in the fridge for as long as possible (12hrs min ideally 48hrs) to make the yeast drop form suspension, then decant the used solution on top of the container leaving about 1 inch on top of the yeast, swirl the yeast and trub into solution. Allow the mixture to sit for about 10-20 minutes or as soon as you see the brown trub start to settle out then decant the yeast solution off the trub into new wort. This is the process I have been using to step up from a slant eventually I have enough yeast for brew and it is really active normally finishes eating the sugar in the wort inside 12 hours or some of the initial stages using baby food jars there is beer on the ceiling when I crack the seal.

Clem

P.S. I think there is about 20 people on this forum who's yeast also got a bit warm on shipment this week

 

[Ravenshead]

I wouldn't work that hard at it. It looks like you have a viable yeast so go with it. If it doesn't work, pitch the notty. You'll be fine even it takes couple days to find out if your Wyeast is alive.

I hate to say it but, RDWHAHB.

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks guys. Clem, this is the original starter vessel. I didn't decent and move to a secondary. I definitely poured the hit break into my starter which I'm assuming us what you see in the first picture. I'm putting in the fridge now and brewing in the morning. I'll be sure to let you guys know if my starter yeast takes off. I really appreciate you all bearing with me during my noob worries. And as far as RDWHAHB goes this is my first brew, but this Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown is doing a good job until I can get my pipeline going.

 

[JonM]

Check the starter beer's gravity before brewing. If its still 1.040ish, you just might have dead yeast and time for Plan B. That's exactly what happened to me on the 4th of July after letting a starter go for 48 hours, but all worked out well.
Happy brewin'!

 

[mrduna01]

I am just freaking impressed that you have a chiller and are pitching a starter for your first batch. Heck I just did my first starter after a year of brewing! Your starter looks good but check the hydrometer reading to see where it's at. Your going to make a kick ass beer I'm sure!

 

[BigTerp]

I am just freaking impressed that you have a chiller and are pitching a starter for your first batch. Heck I just did my first starter after a year of brewing! Your starter looks good but check the hydrometer reading to see where it's at. Your going to make a kick ass beer I'm sure!

Ha. I may be going a bit overboard for my first batch, but I wanted to get things right from the start. I'm going to check the SG right now. I'll report back in a second.

 

[BigTerp]

Just checked the SG. Right at 1.034. Didn't get an SG before pitching my yeast. Doesn't sound good to me. Especially since I ended up with a little over 1.5 liters post boil. Should I go ahead and pitch my starter and see what happens? Or use the dry nottingham I have?

 

[mrduna01]

I would give it a few more days. Either way if it was me I would pitch it. Yeast is more resilient than you think. If nothing else you can add the notty later when you run in to trouble but I doubt you will.

 

[Seven]

I honestly don't think the yeast was given enough time to do its "yeast thing" in that big of a starter. Anyway, if it were me I would give it more time to work so you can confirm if it's really dead or not. I've thought many a starters were dead in the past and then suddenly they went crazy after X number of hours. Either wait another day or two to give this starter more time or just move forward with your brew day and pitch the Nottingham.

We'll be here if you run into any issues!

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks yet again!! I'm going to go ahead and pitch my starter and see what happens. I only have tomorrow to brew so I need to make it happen. Next time I'll be sure to give my starter more time to do it's thing. I'll give my brew until Tuesday to start fermenting and if not I'll pitch my Nottingham. You guys and this forum have been a gigantic help to me with my first brew. I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. Wish me luck!!!!

 

[Clementine]

Ok i just want to confirm this is your first brew? Wow you were organised enough to do a starter and have back up yeast?

Good luck let us know how it goes.

 

[BigTerp]

Ok i just want to confirm this is your first brew? Wow you were organised enough to do a starter and have back up yeast?

Good luck let us know how it goes.

Yeah man. I've been researching this for awhile now. wanted to do it right from the start. I've been taking my time gathering my gear and researching. hopefullly it will turn out ok.

 

[BigTerp]

Pitched the entire starter yesterday after brewing at about 10 am. Checked on my bucket in my swamp cooler, which according to my fermometer is keeping it at 64 degrees, at 11 this morning and noticed what looked like krausen inside my bubble trap and witnessed a bubble or two!!! I know a hydromoter reading is the only way to know weither or not fermentation is taking place, but it looks like things are going as planed.

 

[BigTerp]

Wanted to post a pic of my airlock. Not sure how well you can see what I'm talking about or not.

 

[TucsonTRD]

You might want to make sure you aren't creating a krausen grenade. With my first brew, the lid to my primary bucket was probably seconds from exploding when I woke up in the morning. When I pulled the airlock to relieve the pressure, krausen shot out like volcanic dust and continued to spew out for several minutes. If you have krausen at or near the airlock, you should probably switch to a blow off tube.

Glad to hear you are getting some activity.

 

[mrduna01]

I ALWAYS use a blow off tube atleast for the first five days to a week. Most people don't learn until they are cleaning beer off their ceiling as happened in my case!