Starter looks dead...

[Dgonza9]

So last night SWMBO and I decided that I should brew 10 gallons of Belgian Wheat today. I had everything on hand. I only had one package of liquid yeast, though, so I made a starter. Boiled 2 quarts of water, 2 cups of LDME, chilled in an ice bath, pitched smack pack (I smacked it about an hour before), covered loosely with foil. Everything in contact with wort was sterilized with star san.

I haven't made a starter in a looooooong time, but I expected to see some activity 7 hours later. Everything's quiet in there, though. Just a substantial yeast slurry on the bottom of the container. Is it possible I missed it in just 7-8 hours? Didn't appear to be krausen on top.

I'm hoping to brew later today so I'm wondering if I need to go buy some new yeast.

I'm probably jumping the gun on all this, but I don't want to screw up my first ten gallon batch of beer.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[IrregularPulse]

No fermentation in 7 hours!? sorry but you're being a little impatient. Are you using a stir plate or just intermittent shaking? Starters should be made (as per my understanding) a couple/few days in advance.

 

[dale1038]

If you have that slurry on the bottom then your starter worked. Think about how little yeast was in that smack pack, and how much slurry you have on the bottom now. Should be 3 or 4 times as much. Although, I don't think a 2 quart starter is enough for a 10 gallon batch, it'll still work.

 

[munklunk]

I don't always see krausen in my starters. The way I know there's something going on is when my airlock starts bubbling away. Seeing that you went with the "loosely cover with foil" method, I'd throw an airlock on that bad boy and see if some activity appears. A little swirl to keep the yeast in suspension couldn't hurt either.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I don't always see krausen in my starters. The way I know there's something going on is when my airlock starts bubbling away. Seeing that you went with the "loosely cover with foil" method, I'd throw an airlock on that bad boy and see if some activity appears. A little swirl to keep the yeast in suspension couldn't hurt either.

Airlocks are counter productive to yeast starters. You WANT oxygen to get into the starter during the whole process. The yeast need it to reproduce (the key point of a starter). By putting an airlock on, you're blocking oxygen from getting in.

 

[BoogieBrandBooze]

It's not often I see any significant krausen or any other activity in my starters. It's not a huge amount of wort so it ferments out pretty quickly...fast enough that you could completely miss any visual signs that anything is happening. Also, I'm pretty sure that after 24 hours (36 max) the yeast have done as much as they're going to do in a starter so even after 7 hours it's possible it's done. I wouldn't worry about it...

 

[munklunk]

Airlocks are counter productive to yeast starters. You WANT oxygen to get into the starter during the whole process. The yeast need it to reproduce (the key point of a starter). By putting an airlock on, you're blocking oxygen from getting in.

I always make my starters in 1 gallon glass jugs. The starters are usually small enough that a good solid shaking gets more than enough oxygen in them for the 2-3 days that they will be reproducing. This works every time and gives me enough healthy yeast to get every brew off to a rip-roaring start.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I always make my starters in 1 gallon glass jugs. The starters are usually small enough that a good solid shaking gets more than enough oxygen in them for the 2-3 days that they will be reproducing. This works every time and gives me enough healthy yeast to get every brew off to a rip-roaring start.

Didn't say it will guarantee failure, but it is counter productive.

 

[Dgonza9]

Thanks guys. I'm going to go ahead and brew her up and see how it goes. While I know it's probably not an optimum pitch rate, I'm usually just a single smack pack per 5 gallon batch with no starter guy. So hopefully this will do the trick.

Thanks for the hand holding. LOL.

 

[Revvy]

What "activity" are you looking for?

Just like in the fermenter, starter fermentation isn't always dynamic...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,) 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.

As it is I've only ever seen two krausens actually on my starter, and the evidence of one on the flask at the "waterline" once. But I've never not had a starter take off.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Sometimes the yeast take a while to 'wake up' but as mentioned above sometimes it's hard to tell if it ever fermented. One thing I've done in the past (when I was pretty sure it hadn't fermented yet) was to pour off just enough to take a gravity sample. I use the tube my hydrometer came in so it's only just under 1/2 cup. Dump the sample.

 

[Dgonza9]

Beer is happily fermenting 14 hours after pitching. You were right.