I think my starter didn't start...

[MaskdBagel]

I'm planning on doing a big quad in a few days, so I picked up some WLP530 a few days back and borrowed a stir plate and 5L flask to get a starter going yesterday. When I went to calculate everything, I realized my LHBS sold me a packet of yeast from 7/15/17. I went back over hoping they'd give me something fresh, but they only had 530 with the same production date, so the dude poo pooed online calculators (a little off putting...) and gave me some extra DME so I could step it up.

Pitched yesterday late afternoon and got it stirring, and it looks identical this morning (about 18 hours later) to what it did when it started. No krausen, no visible activity, no gradation of color. It smells a little yeasty, but it certainly doesn't look AT ALL active. (See attached.)

This was ~3600 ml, and 360g of DME. Pitched at ~80 degrees, shaken like crazy, then right onto the stir plate.

Should I be concerned? Should I call it done and just pick a different style to brew for this batch? Should I wait?

 

[triethylborane]

Ive never had a krausen on a starter, some report a small krausen. Regardless the yeast have settled to the bottom of the e flask, so turn on the stir plate and you'll see clumps of yeast swirling around.


80f is a bit high for 530 . . . the yeast should be still be viable from 15 July 17, though multiple starter steps is how I would plan it. As for not using a calculator and step planner, that just is a no go unless you can rain man it in your head.

 

[MaskdBagel]

Not really clumps of yeast. Just the same floaties from the wort that I had yesterday before pitching. Give it some more time before crashing the first step, you think? There isn't anything visible to crash at this point...

 

[flars]

Older yeast will take longer to show visible signs of fermentation. Aerate the wort again. Without using the stir plate watch for visible signs of a krausen forming. The yeast might be dead if there is no krausen in 24 hours from now. There should be viable yeast unless it was mishandled before you received it.

 

[Lefou]

Your starter shouldn't be flat or brown, it should be golden-white and have a slightly frothy foam. Looks like your LBHS may have bad yeast in stock. It's happened to me, as well.
White Labs yeast isn't cheap and it's annoying to try energizing dead yeast right out of the pack. I recently tried doing a liquid starter with WLP500 that looked just like this. It sat overnight, covered, and didn't look right to me. Luckily, I had dry Abbaye yeast on hand that was a year old, unopened. I re-hydrated it in a half liter of warm water with dilute honey and DAP ... BOOM...it was ready in a half hour to be pitched, and finished up in less than 5 days.
Tomorrow I plan on bottling....

 

[portguy]

Seems dead to me...but i'm a noob.

 

[triethylborane]

Your starter shouldn't be flat or brown, it should be golden-white and have a slightly frothy foam.

It is quite dark. Sometimes Im lazy, making starters with unwashed slurry that have some of the residual beer (very lazy ) and the starter will come out that color, but the yeast band in the sediment will be that cream color you mention.

 

[Brewsader1]

If you really want to know, take a hydrometer reading from some of the wort. You should be able to estimate OG from water and DME amounts and see if/how much it attenuated. Not sure why it's that dark, but could be from oxidation of the wort if it didn't at all ferment or fermented quickly. I've done one batch using WLP530 and it took a while to fully ferment out. I had 53% attenuation at day 6 when I tested, so like flars said, give it another day or two.