I can't tell it my starter is ok or not.

[SlitheryDee]

So I made my first starter Friday from a pouch of wlp001 California ale yeast. It ended up being about 1.25 liters of 1.040 starter wort. I basically followed the instructions from the How to Brew website. Over the next couple of days I checked in on it and I couldn't really tell if anything was happening. It never seemed to acquire that coffee-with-creamer look that I've heard described, and there was no real change in odor over those two days either. It just smelled like wort until about day three, when it acquired a somewhat sour note to my nose. It never smelled like the fermentations I'm used to in any case.

On day three I cold crashed it to see if I could tell if there was any increase in the amount of yeast in the flask, and that was pretty inconclusive as well. I could see some yeast in there if I looked up through the bottom on the flask, but there wasn't a thick layer and I can't say with certainty that there's any more than would have come out of the yeast pouch originally.

Finally I decided to double down. Yesterday I decanted the majority of the liquid off the yeast and threw another liter of starter wort in there. I wish I had thought to test the gravity of the decanted liquid, but I guess that ship has sailed now. If there's no obvious yeast growth by the time I get home from work today and the liquid doesn't show a significant drop in gravity I guess I'm going to just give up and start over. I have another pack of yeast to try still, but this whole process seems very mysterious and hard to quantify so far.

 

[shanecb]

I actually almost never see a huge noticeable change in my starters. Sometimes the only way I can say for sure they fermented out correctly is a little krausen line at the top of them.

 

[pvpeacock]

If in doubt, start over. I recently made the mistake of pitching a yeast starter when I had doubts similar to yours about whether it had really "started" at all. I did not see the creamer look, there never was any krausen and it just seemed off. I ended up with a really sour pale ale that I finally dumped after letting it "age" for a few months with no improvement. wasting a liter or two of starter wort, a vial of yeast and a few days is better than losing 5 gallons of beer and all the time and effort that went into it.

 

[Devin]

Were you shaking it? Using a stir plate?

My starters always smell like malt liquor after a couple of days. Sometimes they don't show signs of aggressive fermentation, but they will usually foam up good everytime I shake the starter during the process. Also, I usually have a small krausen ring like shanecb mentioned.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Were you shaking it? Using a stir plate?

My starters always smell like malt liquor after a couple of days. Sometimes they don't show signs of aggressive fermentation, but they will usually foam up good everytime I shake the starter during the process. Also, I usually have a small krausen ring like shanecb mentioned.

I'm using a stir plate. I haven't seen any kind of krausen ring either. The odor I'm detecting isn't reminiscent of any kind of beer or liquor really. I'm afraid the yeast was dead and it's just souring now.

 

[IslandLizard]

Not sure if they fixed the instructions in How to Brew, but to get the recommended 1.037 starter wort, use a DME:Water ratio of 1:10 (by weight). If you want 1.040, use 8% more.

If you do intermittent shaking/swirling by hand you should see a krausen (foam) develop after 12-36 hours, or longer. Sometimes half of it will spill over onto your countertop, which means that portion is lost and you've got to start over again. A stir plate works much, much better.

 

[flars]

Did you aerate the starter wort before pitching the yeast? Was the yeast and starter wort kept at room temperature? Temperature and amount of available oxygen can make a noticeable difference enhancing new cell growth.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Did you aerate the starter wort before pitching the yeast? Was the yeast and starter wort kept at room temperature? Temperature and amount of available oxygen can make a noticeable difference enhancing new cell growth.

I did stir it vigorously before putting it in the flask, and it was on a stir plate the whole time. The yeast was allowed a couple of hours to warm up to room temp and the wort was allowed about the same amount of time to cool. It was definitely cool to the touch when I pitched the yeast.

 

[flars]

I would take it out of the frig and warm to a room temperature of 70° to 75°F. After it warms shake to aerate until you have a couple of inches of frothy wort. Let it sit at room temperature for a 8 to 12 hours then swirl to see if a krausen develops. Check the SG of the wort if no krausen forms after swirling. The yeast either fermented the starter wort without forming a noticeable krausen on the stir plate or the yeast was dead.

edit: How old was the yeast?

 

[Yalc]

When using a stir plate no need to use oxygen. I use a stir plate and it can sometimes be difficult to see a difference. If you shut off the stirring for a few minutes about 12-24 hours in you can see activity. Give it a try.

 

[CKelly]

I do all my starters in a 2 L flask using a stir plate. Unless its a particularly foamy strain (see WY3711, wilds, etc) I never notice any krausen ring and sometimes don't notice a significant color change. One thing you can look out for is CO2 evolution. Take the flask off the stir plate and give it a swirl and look for tiny bubbles rising to the surface. This is almost always how I monitor peak pitching time. Once CO2 evolution is very active, I pitch into my wort. Works every time