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Jdaught

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Does anyone know if having too high of chlorine or chloramine levels in the water used for a starter would kill the yeast? I don't know exact levels but I can smell it in the tap water. I use distilled for brewing and just add what I need to match a certain profile but I have been using tap water for the starters and the last few haven't done so well. The last one I made fermented out well. I decanted the liquid and pitched the slurry into 10 gallons of hefeweizen at 1.045. It has been going for a week and half and the level of activity looks like I just pitched a couple days ago. I've never had this much activity last this long. It's fermenting at 70 degrees. Only thought I can think of that may be making a difference is maybe the tap water is harming the yeast and that is why they are taking so long to ferment this batch.
 
I don't think it should matter but maybe someone more into water chemistry can chime in

As for the fermentation, Hefes can do that sometimes, the best thing to do is check gravity, IME it's probably already done and just doing a lot of off gassing may be due to temp changes or pressure changes
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm gonna check it when I get home today. I've got it in my fridge set to 68 and it's been holding at 70 so it's not temp changes but it could be pressure changes.
 
I'm not a chemist but it's logical that chlorine could inhibit the yeast.

You can always boil the water to get rid of the chlorine, but this will reduce the amount of oxygen. If you aren't using a stir plate you need to shake it up for a few minutes or hit it with some oxygen to get it back up to snuff.

:mug:
 
It gets boiled with the dme prior to cooling and pitching which would get rid of the chlorine but I don't think that gets rid of chloramine. I think your right, the chlorine or chloramine is there to kill bacteria. Just puzzled as to why last few starters haven't gone too well. Last two times I tried with wyeast, I had to dump and start over with new yeast. Used white labs this last time and according to the hydrometer, it fermented the starter just fine. Just seems to be taking forever on the batch I pitched it in. Gonna check gravity tonight and see if I should be worried or not and whether or not to chalk it up as bad wyeast or something with my water.
 
Are you are aerating your starters? I wouldn't think tap water would be a problem, but then again I've never lived anywhere that uses chloramines.
 
No reason not to use the same good water for starters, but I doubt its that impactful.

Are you cold crashing before decanting?
Are you using an appropriate yeast calculator?
What gravity is your starter wort?
Perhaps you should try pitching the whole thing and see if that makes a difference.
 
The starter is 1 liter stepped 3 times so I guess that's 3 liter starter. It's 1.040 and I aerate by shaking every time I walk by. I use 1 vial. I had been using beersmiths calculator but it looks like it is under pitching compared to yeastcalc, so I'm gonna start using that instead.
 
Do you have experience with this yeast? Just because fermentation is going 10 days doesn't mean you have a problem. Some yeast are just slow. And you mention you're having starter problems but it's not really clear that you do.
 
Why are you stepping it up so much? According to Mrmalty all you need is a 1.33 liter starter with intermittent shaking for that batch. My guess would be something is happening during your step ups. Remove some of the variables and only make one starter, no stepping. Also, try pitching the whole starter at high krausen(make the starter 18ish hours prior to pitching). A lot of people pitch the whole starter and 1.33 liters into 10 gallons is a small percentage even if you think it will have negative impact. I have both decanted and pitched the whole thing with success and clearly you need to change something. So start removing some of your variables to source the issue.
 
The starter problems are that 2 out of the last three starters I have made had to be dumped and started over because they failed to even ferment the starter wort. I have never used this white labs strain before, only the wyeast strain and it was vigorous fermentation for a few days then it was basically done and it attenuated as it should have.

I guess I did something wrong in beersmiths calculator and made to large starter. Will over pitching cause a slower fermentation? My next starter will be made with distilled water and only the initial size, with no steps. I am gonna use yeastcalc for the size. Hopefully that one won't have problems and I can start to do the steps after that and eventually narrow down the problem.

Just checked gravity and it's 1.020 after 10 days. Starte at 1.045.
 
I'm not sure where you live, but in Chicago we have a lot of chloramine and chlorine in the water. I use Campden tablets (potassium metabisulfate) and the process the chloramine in just a few minutes. Incredibly cheap as well, just bought 100 tablets for $2.99. A quarter tablet treats 5 gallons. Good luck!
 
I use distilled water for all my starters, just like I would if I still brewed extract. The extract still has the water profile of who ever produced it, just the pure H2O gets removed during the process. I use Wyeast's yeast nutrient as well.
 
KarlHungus76 said:
I'm not sure where you live, but in Chicago we have a lot of chloramine and chlorine in the water. ..
Do you have a source for that? I looked into this once and thought I concluded that our lake water just had chlorine.
 
I work for a water company so what I am saying has some merit.

If you smell chlorine in your water then your water is actually low on chlorine. This is because the existing chlorine in the water is working harder than it should to eliminate bacteria.

I can't tell you, without testing, that your water is at acceptable levels though. I would call your water supplier and ask them for the most recent profile/testing that have been done.
 
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