Newbie Yeast Starter Questions

[selfmadehobo]

Long time reader; First time poster. So I decide to jump into brewing and start with a 1 gallon batch of Belgian Wit. By the time I got around to start the adventure my yeast (White Labs - Belgian Wit Ale Yeast WLP400) was about month past it's "best before" date. So I decided to create a starter to boost yeast count and followed White Lab's instructions.

I didn't have DME, only LME from the ingredient kit I bought. So from my research I mixed 2 pints of water with 120 grams of LME. After a 10 min boil and cool down I pitched my yeast into the wort. I didn't notice losing about a 1/2 pint of volume during the boil and the Gravity was at about 1.050. I have well water, so I didn't even consider topping off to get back to the suggested 1.040 gravity for the starter. In addition I feel like the temp of the wort was higher than it should have been when I pitched, possibly 78F.

With all that said...I let the mixture do its thing for 20 hours, while I vigorously swirled/aerated it every couple hours. About 6-8 hours into the 20 hours there was a huge amount of bubbling. And this morning I had some overflow out of the jar. After the 20 hours I put it in the fridge, unsure if I let it go too long or too little.

As of now...the starter has been in the fridge for approx. 10 hours. I'm not sure if things went as planned or not, because there is only a small amount of yeast on the bottom of the jar. Seems like just about the same amount of yeast from the original vial perhaps.

Any opinions or suggestions would be of help during my time of uncertainty. Thanks!

 

[FreddyMar3]

There are certainly a number of things you can do to improve this process, but the bottom line is, you should be fine (assuming you followed proper sanitary procedures).

-Starters can be deceiving with how little yeast it looks like is on the bottom of the vessel. If you got fermentation, there will be more active, viable yeast than there was prior.

-78F might be a little bit high but shouldn't be a problem. Certainly not hot enough to kill any of the yeast. I've heard diffing opinions on keeping starters warm vs keeping them at the same temp you plan to ferment at.

-1.050 OG is a bit high, especially for expired yeast, but again, it's not a huge deal and not something people will notice in the finished product.

- might want to crash a bit longer before you decant. I like to give it 24 hours minimum in the fridge.

Tips for next time:
Keep a bag of DME on hand for starters.
add 10% to your starter volume pre boil to account for boil off.
Use an ice bath to get temps down quickly and in range.

Good luck with the brew.

 

[selfmadehobo]

Thanks for your response and the tips Freddy!