Is My Starter Good?

[ryan810cows]

Hello all! So I'm probably being over the top on this but... I received my Wyeast 1332 yesterday afternoon and made a proper 1 liter (per Mr. malty) starter for this weekend's brew of Northern Brewer's Caribou slobber!! I've been a little worried about the heat during travel for the yeast. When I smacked the pack, several hours later it had begun inflating and before I cut it open it was getting pretty firm. So that seemed like it was doing it's job.

This is what it look like just as I put it on the stir plate.. That was about 10 o'clock last night.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1473287628.452257.jpg

I did see some foaming and a little bit of activity this morning before I went to work.

This is what it looks like just now...
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1473287671.970668.jpg

So my question is, since I don't have a large ring of krausen around my Erlenmeyer flask, has it shown enough activity to be considered viable? I was going to keep it on the stir plate until tomorrow morning. Then I was going to put it in the fridge for three days. I'll decant, warm-up and then pitch.

Side note, first time using this yeast and this erlenmeyer flask... One thought I had was that since the flask is so large, the krausen ring might not be so large...

What's your take?

 

[brewshki]

Hello all! So I'm probably being over the top on this but... I received my Wyeast 1332 yesterday afternoon and made a proper 1 liter (per Mr. malty) starter for this weekend's brew of Northern Brewer's Caribou slobber!! I've been a little worried about the heat during travel for the yeast. When I smacked the pack, several hours later it had begun inflating and before I cut it open it was getting pretty firm. So that seemed like it was doing it's job.

This is what it look like just as I put it on the stir plate.. That was about 10 o'clock last night.
View attachment 369299

I did see some foaming and a little bit of activity this morning before I went to work.

This is what it looks like just now...
View attachment 369300

So my question is, since I don't have a large ring of krausen around my Erlenmeyer flask, has it shown enough activity to be considered viable? I was going to keep it on the stir plate until tomorrow morning. Then I was going to put it in the fridge for three days. I'll decant, warm-up and then pitch.

Side note, first time using this yeast and this erlenmeyer flask... One thought I had was that since the flask is so large, the krausen ring might not be so large...

What's your take?

Before I owned a stir plate, my krausen and krausen ring was much larger. After using a stir plate, I noticed significantly less of both of those things. In my opinion, it looks fine. Once you take it off the stir plate and begin to chill it, you should see the yeast floc into a white ish tan layer on the bottom. Your smack pack inflating would also tell me that the yeast should be active and just fine.

 

[ryan810cows]

That's good to know about the stir plate! Thanks for the advice.