Around January i made a hefe using 3068. I built up a starter and prior to pitching i decanted the starter wort and poured some of the yeast into a mason jar to save. It has been in my fridge since.
On Saturday i made a 500ml starter to rouse this back to life, and i was going to step it up to a larger starter over the course of this week. I put it on the stir plate and about two hours later there was a huge krausen on it. I thought that was pretty encouraging, in fact I've never really had a big krausen on a starter before, i assumed it meant my yeast was pretty healthy.
The thing that is weird to me is it has been on the stirplate since then and the krausen hasn't dropped. there is still a thick foam on the surface of the starter. Also when i shut the stirplate off no yeast flocs to the bottom. Typically in every starter I have ever made there is yeast dropping out and forming a layer on the bottom pretty much immediately, but not this time.
The amount of yeast I started was pretty small, i figured i would have to step it up a few times to get up to a good pitch. I have never built a starter with harvested yeast, nor with such a small amount of yeast.
Is this typical? Should I cold crash it even though it still has krausen then decant and step up to 1L as planned? Or should i let it go longer? Or should I just buy new yeast?
On Saturday i made a 500ml starter to rouse this back to life, and i was going to step it up to a larger starter over the course of this week. I put it on the stir plate and about two hours later there was a huge krausen on it. I thought that was pretty encouraging, in fact I've never really had a big krausen on a starter before, i assumed it meant my yeast was pretty healthy.
The thing that is weird to me is it has been on the stirplate since then and the krausen hasn't dropped. there is still a thick foam on the surface of the starter. Also when i shut the stirplate off no yeast flocs to the bottom. Typically in every starter I have ever made there is yeast dropping out and forming a layer on the bottom pretty much immediately, but not this time.
The amount of yeast I started was pretty small, i figured i would have to step it up a few times to get up to a good pitch. I have never built a starter with harvested yeast, nor with such a small amount of yeast.
Is this typical? Should I cold crash it even though it still has krausen then decant and step up to 1L as planned? Or should i let it go longer? Or should I just buy new yeast?
