Made my first ever yeast starter, and nothing is happening

[cochised]

Brewed a Mosaic pale ale and did so using my first ever yeast starter.
Yeast was California ale yeast, all in date etc
Bucket is sealed but no bubbler action.

Coming up to 48 hours now
So what can I do to kick start things?
Have a packet of similar dry yeast if that's any use?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Did the starter ferment?

If you cold crashed it, did you allow the starter to warm up gradually before pitching?

Have you taken a hydrometer reading to confirm your batch is not fermenting?

What temperature is your batch?

What process did you use to make the starter?

 

[cochised]

Did the starter ferment?

If you cold crashed it, did you allow the starter to warm up gradually before pitching?

Have you taken a hydrometer reading to confirm your batch is not fermenting?

What temperature is your batch?

What process did you use to make the starter?

Used DME and water, boiled and then cooled. Added yeast and then 24 hours on stir plate
Stir plate was in kitchen so at room temp
Batch is at 20 c.
Admittedly didn't check if starter had fermented, just assumed
Will do a hyrdro reading next, just checking to see what my options are if nothing happens

 

[RPh_Guy]

Admittedly didn't check if starter had fermented, just assumed
Will do a hyrdro reading next, just checking to see what my options are if nothing happens

You can normally visually confirm that there's activity in the starter, with krausen, CO2 bubbling, and a larger amount of yeast (cream colored).

Confirm whether your batch is fermenting.
If not, you can definitely pitch dry yeast.

Dry yeast is great to have on hand as a backup plan. One time I dropped a starter and it shattered all over my kitchen. At least my beer was saved (by US-05).

 

[cochised]

In fairness starter didn't show much sign of krausen etc but I persevered

I'll give it a bit more time then check gravity.
Have the dry yeast as back up if needed.

Thanks

 

[cochised]

Quick update, gone from 1045 to 1025 or thereabouts so obviously fermenting away without bubbler activity

 

[Soulshine2]

Brewed a Mosaic pale ale and did so using my first ever yeast starter.
Yeast was California ale yeast, all in date etc
Bucket is sealed but no bubbler action.

Coming up to 48 hours now
So what can I do to kick start things?
Have a packet of similar dry yeast if that's any use?

was it a dry yeast or liquid?
what did you start it with?

 

[cochised]

Liquid, dme starter

 

[balrog]

Bubbles not appearing just means bucket seal is letting CO2 out instead of forcing through airlock and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, just not what you were expecting. I always say to check for smell, if it's in a closed area, or calm airflow area, you will smell the fermentation even if the airlock is not bubbling because the CO2 will come out or the bucket will be expanding.

 

[cochised]

Bubbles not appearing just means bucket seal is letting CO2 out instead of forcing through airlock and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, just not what you were expecting. I always say to check for smell, if it's in a closed area, or calm airflow area, you will smell the fermentation even if the airlock is not bubbling because the CO2 will come out or the bucket will be expanding.

Yeah, seems to be the case
Just odd as none of my other brews using same setup have done it without bubbling.

Anyway, will keep an eye on it but seems to be doing it's thing

 

[kh54s10]

BTW, Sometimes with a starter on a stirplate you have to look closely to see any activity. There may be no krausen at all. Get a flashlight and get real close and look for bubbles rising. They are tiny. Longer look for the color to change from a translucent to a creamy opaque, the color of coffee with a lot of milk in it.

After cold crashing you should have a layer of yeast and a little trub that is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch deep in a 2 liter flask for a starter of at least 1 liter in size.

 

[cochised]

BTW, Sometimes with a starter on a stirplate you have to look closely to see any activity. There may be no krausen at all. Get a flashlight and get real close and look for bubbles rising. They are tiny. Longer look for the color to change from a translucent to a creamy opaque, the color of coffee with a lot of milk in it.

After cold crashing you should have a layer of yeast and a little trub that is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch deep in a 2 liter flask for a starter of at least 1 liter in size.

Colour certainly changed, even my 4 year old son commented on that.
Not so much with the layer and trub.
How does one rectify that?

 

[kh54s10]

Colour certainly changed, even my 4 year old son commented on that.
Not so much with the layer and trub.
How does one rectify that?

Did you cold crash it? If so for how long? It takes at least overnight, maybe 24 hours or longer to get most of the yeast to fall and layer on the bottom. If long enough the "beer" on top will be clear. If it is still a little milky you haven't cold crashed long enough.

If you did not cold crash there won't be much of a layering.

 

[cochised]

Did you cold crash it? If so for how long? It takes at least overnight, maybe 24 hours or longer to get most of the yeast to fall and layer on the bottom. If long enough the "beer" on top will be clear. If it is still a little milky you haven't cold crashed long enough.

If you did not cold crash there won't be much of a layering.

Ah, there may be my issue
I cooled it in an ice bath to pitch the yeast in, straight onto stir plate and then into wort

Should I have crashed it overnight after the time on plate and then brought it back up to temp??

 

[mongoose33]

BTW, Sometimes with a starter on a stirplate you have to look closely to see any activity. There may be no krausen at all. Get a flashlight and get real close and look for bubbles rising. They are tiny. Longer look for the color to change from a translucent to a creamy opaque, the color of coffee with a lot of milk in it.

After cold crashing you should have a layer of yeast and a little trub that is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch deep in a 2 liter flask for a starter of at least 1 liter in size.

This is typical of my starters too. I always put a drop of Fermcap-S in the starter before boiling the wort, in order to avoid a boilover. This also reduces the tendency of the starter to form a visible krausen.

I just did a starter last weekend, WLP940. Had one of the most vigorous "fementations" I've ever had and there was little more than a skim of bubbles on the surface of the starter.

I think the idea of watching the color change is a good one; not unusual for my starters to go from a sort of tan color to a more creamsicle color by the finish. Even if I don't have a visible krausen it's a sign the starter is doing what it's supposed to. One of these days I'll take a couple pics of that and post them.

 

[Redpappy]

Are you using bucket, carboy? If you are using a bucket, keep in mind they usually don’t seal great. So it is not unusual to not see much activity. I use buckets to ferment in, and there are some I see lots of activities, and then there are those I really don’t.

 

[mongoose33]

Couple of other thoughts:

You don't say if you pitched the starter directly at 24 hours or crashed it. If you crashed it and decanted, then it'll take longer for the yeast to get going, as opposed to just pitching the whole starter.

FWIW, that's what I do--I pitch the whole starter. It adds a quart/liter to the volume, and typically drops the OG by about a point. You'll find people around here who do not like that approach, but it works. I want that yeast to get going ASAP, to outcompete any nasties that have dropped into the wort. My son is a microbiologist and a homebrewer too; he says that dust carries bacteria and such on it, and as it falls into the wort, guess what? Infected! Except if you can get the yeast to outcompete those nasties, you have less chance of them producing off flavors.

I also do something fairly rare around here, there's only about 3 or 4 of us who do this: I oxygenate the starter wort before pitching the yeast into it. I add a pinch of yeast nutrient before boiling, then on the stir plate it goes. The logic is that boiling the wort drives off the oxygen from the liquid, and I'm simply trying to replace it, rather than depending on the stir plate to do that. I want that yeast to take off, and dealing with a low-oxygen environment doesn't help that.

Anyway, sounds like your beer is going to town; enjoy!

 

[cochised]

Pitched direct at 24 hours, no crashing

Using a bucket too

 

[TNJake]

Sounds like you have if figured out but just to add, my starters rarely show much in the way of activity. It usually takes a hydro reading or a vigorous shake to see bubbles before I know that anything is really happening.

 

[kh54s10]

For any starter that is bigger than .75 liters, and sometimes up to 1 liter if pressed for time, I cold crash and decant the "beer". It has been fermented in less than ideal conditions and I don't want much of that in my beer. I have only not decanted a starter that was 1 liter or larger a couple of times. If the starter is small I often skip the decant.

I have not seen a significant difference in lag time between decanted starters and ones that weren't. I pitch late in the afternoon and with almost all starters I am seeing fermentation by the time I go to bed. All liquid yeast pitches have been active by morning.

The only exception is a couple of times with dry yeast. And those were going before 48 hours elapsed.

 

[balrog]

FWIW, one man's opinion, I always make 1.5L-ish starters, a few days prior to brewing, cooling in fridge for a day or 2 to settle most of it out, decant most supernatant, then swirling and saving about 1/3 which is calculated to be about 100b, set aside for next starter, pitching 2/3 which is about 200b.

That way, "overbuilding", I feel I am making "cleaner" set asides for next generation build, without hops or dark grain flavors, or whatnot.

[Edit: the downside is bargaining with Significat Other for fridge space for "all those damned mason jars of ick"]

 

[kh54s10]

[Edit: the downside is bargaining with Significat Other for fridge space for "all those damned mason jars of ick"]

You need a dedicated "Yeast Fridge", out of the SO's area.....

 

[balrog]

You need a dedicated "Yeast Fridge", out of the SO's area.....

And a dedicated hops freezer

And a dedicated craft beer fridge, and/or keg fridge

And a dedicated ... this is getting out of hand ...