Need some help

[ETCS]

Hello All....I brewed a Scotch Ale yesterday, finished up with a OG of 1060. I noticed that my Wyeast pack didn't expand like it normally does. I also thought that with a higher gravity like I had, I would make a starter. So I cleaned and sanitized a growler that I had, and took some of the cooled wort out of the primary (haven't added any yeast yet) and added the wyeast 1098 the growler. I let it sit all night. Since I've never done this before, am I going to see activity at all, how do I know when it's ready to go? Any help would be great...Thanks.

 

[ACbrewer]

you should notice something - a bit of foaming on the top, etc. I'd agitate the growler, yeast in their 'expansion' phase like O2 to grow and multiply. Doing so changes how much they can increase their count.

There are a few differing opinions on 'best time to pitch' off the starter - if you pitch at the time of high keurasan (sp?) then the yeast is in a massive growth phase, and that could be good, but if you let all of it settle back out - say 24 to 48 hours then you increase the starting count for the wort.... Tough call, becasue in the first case you might get continued rapid incease... in the 2nd you start with more yeast which will then go into the expansion phase again Note basically yeast increase count (expands) ferments and then cleans up. The phases overlap a little

Don't worry to much about your wort as long as you keep it totally sealed up, this will prevent wild stuff from drifting in. My first wine kit I let sit 6 or 7 hours before pitching - added water that was to warm for pitching. Key here is keeping things sealed up until you pitch. Optionally you can reheat it to kill anything, or keep it to hot for stuff to grow.

 

[Revvy]

From the horse's mouth.

From the Wyeast FAQ website:

3. Does the package need to be fully swollen before pitching?

No, The package can be pitched before activating, or at anytime during the activation process. The activation process "jump starts" the culture's metabolism, minimizing the lag phase.

You don't even really have to smack if you don't want to if you are making a starter, but you definitely don't need to wait for it to inflate.

Now, activity in a starter really only means one thing and one thing only.

It doesn't matter one blip in your fermenter or your starter flask if the airlock bubbles or not (if you are using an airlock and not tinfoil if you are using tinfoil, you aren't getting bibbling anyway,) or if you see a krauzen. In fact starter fermentation are some of the fastest or slowest but most importantly, the most boring fermentations out there. Usually it's done withing a few hours of yeast pitch...usually overnight when we are sleeping, and the starter looks like nothing ever happened...except for the little band at the bottom. Or it can take awhile...but either way there's often no "activity" whatsoever....

I usually run my stirplate for the first 24 hours, then shut it down, if you are spinning your starter it is really hard to get a krausen to form anyway, since it's all spinning, and there's often a head of foam on it from the movement.


All that really matters is that creamy band o yeast at the bottom.

This is a chilled sample so it's flocculated, but even with an unchilled sample you should see a band of yeast at the bottom. Here's an unchilled version

Same thing, a band.

As it is I've only ever seen two or three krausens actually on my starter (one blew off a bunch of krausen and knocked the tinfoil off the flask,) and the evidence of one on the flask at the "waterline" once. But I've never not had a starter take off.

Look for the yeast at the bottom, don't worry what it looks like on top.

If you have yeast on the bottom....that's all you really need.

If it looks anything like that, your are ready to either feed it again, or use it.

People always think the yeast

 

[mcaple1]

Can we please stop using vague forum topics...thank you

 

[ETCS]

Thanks Revvy, as usual, you've answered a question with one simple post.