Lifeless liquid yeast starter! How?

[Poynton Blue]

Ordered Wyeast London Ale #1028, and my first time using liquid yeast (for an Imperial NEIPA I’m brewing today.

Yesterday lunchtime (24h ago), I took the pack from the fridge, and “smacked the pack”, & shook it up, before leaving to stand.

Once done, I boiled 2l of water, with 145g of DME added, and then cooled to 22C. Whilst it was cooling, I occasionally swirled the pack.

I then sanitised the pack, and a 1Gal demijohn, lid and airlock, and transferred the wort. I lidded and shook the wort, to aerate.

I then opened the and pitched into the starter wort, put the lid and airlock on and let stand. Over the last 24h I have swirled the demijohn to mix the yeast & wort.

All good so far?

I have zero (!) activity in the demijohn. It looks totally lifeless. What the #%^* have I done wrong? Do I use or do I quickly make up a new starter using the 2 packs of US05 I have?

Help appreciated, as I’m around an hour away from mashing in!

 

[schmurf]

You do have something in the bottom of the demijohn. Have you taken a gravity reading?

 

[mongoose33]

Did you add a fermcap type of additive to the wort when you boiled it? I do that, and it also keeps down the krausen in the starters I do.

There sure looks to be a reasonable amount of yeast at the bottom of that starter. Did the pack swell as it sat there, unopened, after you smacked it? If the yeast pack swells, then it has active yeast in it.

If it doesn't work, then you can add a couple packs of S-05 later. You won't need a starter for those, just sprinkle them in. But I'm betting your starter works.

 

[Poynton Blue]

No, the pack didn’t swell. Actually when I opened the pack, one of two nutrient pouches hadn’t popped, so I had to cut (sanitised scissors used) and pour in to the wort.
Just checked gravity - 1.042. No fem additions, just the water, yeast & nutrient mix. So chill to 18C, drain off most of the wort and then pitch? And then cross fingers? ;-)
Thanks for help...

 

[mongoose33]

BTW, one more thing. A typical rule of thumb for doing starters is 100 grams of DME per liter of water. You're rather light on the DME, IMO. It'll still work, of course, but your yeast would have chewed through the sugar faster than normal, and presumably resulted in less yeast mass.

Since it's an Imperial NEIPA, presumably a higher gravity one, you want more yeast. I suppose you could say that since you're using 145 grams of DME that's more than the normal 100 per a liter of water....

It'll work either way, it's just an odd set of amounts....

 

[mongoose33]

No, the pack didn’t swell. Actually when I opened the pack, one of two nutrient pouches hadn’t popped, so I had to cut (sanitised scissors used) and pour in to the wort.
Just checked gravity - 1.042. No fem additions, just the water, yeast & nutrient mix. So chill to 18C, drain off most of the wort and then pitch? And then cross fingers? ;-)
Thanks for help...

The gravity of the starter is 1.042? Then the yeast is dead. You should be down around 1.015 or 1.020 or something.

The starting gravity of a 100 gram to 1 liter of water starter should be around 1.036-1.040. Can't figure out how with 145 grams of DME in two liters of water you're at 1.042, but either way, nothing happened.

So I wouldn't pitch it, it'd just be a waste. Pitch a pack or two of the S-05. I'd be comfortable pitching one pack.

 

[mongoose33]

What was the manufacturing date on the yeast pack? If it was unsuccessful in a starter it had to have been mishandled at some point.

 

[Poynton Blue]

Just checked and it’s fresh - 01/07/2019 manufacture date. I’ll get going with the US05.
Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

Just checked and it’s fresh - 01/07/2019 manufacture date. I’ll get going with the US05.
Cheers!

Is that July 1, 2019? If so, yeah, pretty fresh. Unless it's the United States date which would be January 7, 2019, which would be very not fresh.

But even if it's July 1, somewhere along the line it was not properly cared for. Is there a place in Europe or the UK where Wyeast is manufactured? Or is it shipped over from the US?

 

[kh54s10]

Several things I see. 1) That 145 grams in 2 liters of water should not get you close to 1.042 SG. I would expect about 1.020 from that concentration. 2) With a shaken starter I would let it ferment for at least 2 days, I don't think a little less than 24 hours is enough. Wyeast smack packs don't always swell, even with good yeast. Though they should. If the yeast was manufactured in the US, it was done in January and is old. If so it would take even longer in the starter.

I cannot say that the starter is not working from the information given. But, I would not use it, yet, in a brew. If you use the US-05 do not make a starter with it. The dry yeast is engineered to be pitched as is. You might rehydrate, but that is a different procedure - water - no wort. But you can just sprinkle it on the surface of the wort to be fermented.

 

[rburrelli]

Just checked and it’s fresh - 01/07/2019 manufacture date. I’ll get going with the US05.
Cheers!

That is not fresh yeast. Pretty low viability when 8 months old.

 

[Poynton Blue]

Hi folks - sorry for any confusion. I’m in the UK, so July ‘19. Happy it’s fresh. Just wondering if it’s been frozen at any point. No worries, I’ll use my backup US-05. Thanks for all the advice. Just waiting for wort to cool now. Rest of the brewday has gone really well. [emoji6][emoji482]