Pitching starter with the sediment at the bottom?

[Bubbles2]

Thanks for looking in. I harvested a small amount of yeast and am using a starter.

1. Last night I shook and stirred (no stir plate) this morn check starter and there is sediment at the bottom. Now this was rinsed and I was wondering if you pitch that too?

I did this once before and did indeed pitch the sediment, however that batch is curing in the bottle and have not tried it and thought to ask over here.

Two pics attached, one for sediment view and one for over-view of starter.

2.Batch/Starter looks like it's a bit small and from the calc was directed to use more yeast, or create a 2nd and 3rd starter, but I am curious about that too. - Would you pitch that sediment in yet a 2nd or 3rd Starter batch?

3. Also while on the subject do you all measure the O.G of the Starter and aim for a number? I did 2.5oz DME and 1.5 qt of H20
Thanks in advance for direction

 

[RM-MN]

Shaken starters take longer than those on a stir plate. It looks like you have a bit of break material and some yeast settling out but most of your yeast is still in suspension (the cloudiness says so) which means it is still working. If your wort is ready to go, pitch it all in. If the wort is aerated you will get a lot more propagation there.

If you haven't made the wort yet, let this starter go for another day, shaking it every time you walk by. Here's a good read for you.

http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2015/02/yeast-starters-stirred-vs-not.html

 

[mongoose33]

I've never seen anything settle to the bottom of a fermenter that looks as dark as that does. I don't think I'd have an issue pitching it, but I don't think I'd keep harvesting it, either.

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There are a few of us here that pitch the entire starter into the wort. I'm one of them. I don't worry about decanting anything, and there are reasons for doing it this way, including the speed with which fermentation takes off.

As far as starting gravity of a starter: I use 100g of DME in a liter of water, gets me about 1.038 gravity. After it's cooled down I will oxygenate that starter wort w/ an O2 wand, then pitch the yeast into it. I typically bubble for 30 seconds into that starter so as to give it a head start in getting going.

*************

Made a starter Wednesday evening, getting it going about 10:30pm. I brewed late Thursday, pitched that yeast, the entire starter, into the wort at 8:30pm. I had active bubbling by 12:15am, less than 4 hours later. I generally like to time things such that I'm pitching that starter at about 16-18 hours after I put it on the stir plate. But it doesn't hurt to go a little longer. I pitch that yeast into wort that I've chilled to be the same, or close to, temperature as the starter.

 

[Bubbles2]

@RM-MN thanks for the help and link/cite

@Mongoose Appreciate the steps and heads up on the 'dirty yeast'.

This is a Wyeast that is 3 months old and my first 'halfassed save' where I did not save more then 200ml with the beer atop. I had "what I think were good results" as you did Mongoose with my last recycle, good start like yours. I guess Because that was only a week or two old when recycling and with ample amount I saw faster results... This one is taking longer. I tasted it and it has no 'off flavors' as in butterscotch or sour apples, has a nice yeast flavor of the IPA I had..

I split that batch and did another Step with it. Crashed the first Step after 30 hours and after reading RM-MN's pointing out the cloudiness, I think I just prematurely decanted some of that working yeast, albeit fridged/crashed over night. It was cloudy, not like above, but cloudy. I reserved what I think is the yeast from that crashed batch (white sand at the bottom) and am going to add it to the other half that has and is still working since last night. I guess this might take a couple of days to see it finish.

I measured the OG for the starter at 1050 fwiw. Thanks again for the guidance, appreciate it.