Made a Starter...OG Way Too High?!?!?

[ScrewBrew]

So I am wanting to make a batch of hard cider. I bought some Wyeast liquid cider yeast from my LHBS. Smacked it, waited....nothing much happened.

Turns out the yeast was 7 months old. (Lesson learned). So I decided to make my first starter. I used about a quart of cider and a little more than a cup of brown sugar. WHOOPS! Thats alot of fermentables. (Lesson learned).

I didn't realize that cider has an OG of around 1.040-1.050 all by itself. (Lesson Learned). I estimate I added a half pound of sugar to this starter!

So I made the starter and took off to the parents for memorial day. It dawned on that the OG might have been way too high! Will my yeasties be junk? Or will I have created a colony of hungry, pissed off yeast ready for 5 gallons of cider to binge on?

 

[el_kirk]

Check the gravity of your starter. If the yeasties were able to ferment it all out then I guess you didn't stress them so much you killed them all. But you may have stressed them enough that they're making off flavors. Hard to tell, because starters don't usually taste very good.

I'd probably use it if the yeast fermented your starter out all the way. And then give the resulting product a name that invokes Chuck Norris.

 

[dancness]

1.040 is the target OG for a starter. If you added 1/2 lb of sugar to a liter starter on top of that, your OG is going to be very high. I think you may have overstressed the yeast a lot. Plus the fact it is a few months expired, I'd say that yeast is pooped.

My recommendation is to bite the bullet and go buy a new smack pack. Also tell your friendly LHBS representative that you would prefer not to buy expired yeast anymore.

 

[ScrewBrew]

Thanks guys! I'm going to chaulk this one up to experience. I'll go to the LHBS and pick up a new packet of yeast. I've got a few questions though.......

1. I plan on starting a new starter. Would it be a bad idea to pitch the high OG starter in question into the must anyways? Or would I just risk having some off flavors?

2. What is the difference from pitching yeast into a 1.040 OG starter vs. pitching it straight into a must with an OG of 1.090? Although starters are reccomended, it seems they are not always done...even for worts and musts with a high OG.

 

[dancness]

1. Are you asking if you should pitch both the old starter and the new one? You can pitch both if you like, but if it were me I'd just toss it and make a starter from the new smack pack. Personally I prefer to know for sure that my yeast is healthy and the approximate cell count I'm pitching... If you are starting with 100 billion cells (new smack pack) and make a starter from that, you will have a good idea of the amount of cells you are pitching (150-200 billion). Yes, pitching stressed yeast into your must can cause off flavors which is why I suggested you start with a fresh smack pack and just throw away the old one.

2. Starters are recommended for a must OG over 1.06. The higher sugar content will stress the yeast so you need more to get the job done. You would probably be ok pitching just the smack pack, but for optimum yeast health a starter is recommended. Also as a disclaimer I'm not too knowledgable about fermenting cider, but I'm pretty sure you'd want to make a starter using some yeast nutrient or something similar. Pure sugar does not have all the vitamins and minerals the yeast need to multiply while remaining healthy.

Hope that helps.

 

[ScrewBrew]

You've all been a great help. I'm going to toss my original starter. I'll fire up a new starter with some sanitized cider and some yeast nutrient. I think I should be fine with the 1.040-1.050 OG of the cider.

 

[ScrewBrew]

UPDATE!!! So I started my new batch of yeast without any issues. Although I didn't plan to use my high OG starter I figured I'd measure the final gravity to see how much sugar was fermented out....

It ended up at 1.008. When I poured it down the sink it smelled like a mixture of apple juice and vodka. No I didn't taste it.....