Underpitch or wait for starter?

[daveotero]

Just finished the boil for a last min brew day Hefeweizen. I only made the starter 8 hours ago and it hasn't done much yet.

Would you go ahead a pitch the unfermented starter, or sanitize really really well, wait another 12 to 24 hours, then pitch?

 

[ChshreCat]

I'd just pitch it. I doubt a hefeweizen is going to be a big enough beer that you can't live without a starter. Under, I dunno... 1.060... you're better off with a starter, but can get by pitching a smack pack. An activator, that is.

But now that I think about it... Imperial Hefeweizen... I may be on to something...

 

[ifishsum]

Especially if you're going for banana/clove esters in your hefe, I'd say go ahead an pitch. Some folks even purposely underpitch hefes to try and encourage more of those esters to be produced. Is there at least enough activity that you know the yeast is good?

 

[daveotero]

Well there's no activity with the starter at all that I can see. Haven't bothered with a gravity reading but I would expect to see the fermentation with WLP300. I'm also stuck without my ferm fridge for this brew so temps might be a little higher than normal. I'll probably just pitch a call it a day.

I'm just gonna dump a **** ton of red food coloring in it at bottling and feed it to people on Halloween anyway.

 

[daveotero]

Done. Pitched. Good night.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[hercher]

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew (in your sleep, if necessary). You should be fine. I often don't see a lot of activity in my starters, but still get quite good results with them.

 

[daveotero]

Well, the short 8 hour starter at least woke the little beasties up. 11 hours after pitching it seams to be just getting started. This is only my 5th brew but I still love seeing the first signs of airlock activity. Lets you know the "magic" is happening.

Brewing rules! This would be fun even if you didn't get 50 bottles of beer at the end.