Wyeast

[shooterguy71]

I just got my order of supplies to make my first batch of mead. The WYEAST 1388 packet seems like the starter packet inside may have been popped already. The bag isn't tight like it has been activated, however I can't feel the starter packet inside.

 

[loveofrose]

Hold it down and push everything into a corner. You should be able to feel it.

 

[Drewed]

You are looking for a small "pillow," perhaps an inch and a half square. I still sometimes have a hard time finding them. The pillow isn't very fat either.

 

[shooterguy71]

I guess I couldn't feel it but I smacked it last night and the bag swelled a bit after 3 hours. I put it in a flask with 1800ml water, 1/2 cup honey, and 1 tsp of GoFerm on a stir plate. What should I look for over the next couple days to tell if it's working? The BOMM recipe says to keep it on the stir plate for 3 days.

 

[Drewed]

Not much. You are trying to keep the yeast in a growth phase, not a ferment phase. The fact that it swelled let's you know that is was working.

I'll have to check, but I don't remember making a starter as part of the BOMM, or are you making a 5 gallon batch?

 

[shooterguy71]

The 5 gallon batch

 

[bernardsmith]

Not to hijack your question shooterguy71, and I apologize if you think that this is what I am doing but I have never understood whether a starter literally increases the size of the colony or simply ensures that the colony in the batch is at its most viable - or does the stir plate do both or something else entirely. I ask because if the cell colony is supposed to increase in the flask why won't the colony simply increase in the must (or wort) - especially, if the wort is close in gravity to the medium in the stir plate - and I ask because while brewers often typically use stir plates wine makers don't...

 

[Baabaadoo]

A starter's intent is to increase the yeast cell count. The stir plate allows for constant aeration, which is important in promoting healthy cell division. A starter is a optimal environment where the yeast can have a stress free, optimally viable division party. Wine must tends to have less complex sugars than beer wort. This is all based off of articles I have read. I admit to having zero experience with yeast starters. Here's a good HBT article on the phases of yeast growth that might help.

 

[Maylar]

Also, I think starters are used with liquid yeasts which tend to be expensive. Dry wine yeast is cheap enough to pitch a lot of it.

 

[bernardsmith]

A starter's intent is to increase the yeast cell count.

I guess I know what people assume.. But they also assumed that the sun orbited the Earth and that the Earth was flat. They thought that you would shorten your life if you traveled in a train backwards (in 1832 or 1833)... and that phlogiston was a substance in material that was the cause of combustion... My question is not what folk assume or hope - but what evidence is there that may support what might be a folk tale.. Does the cell count increase and by how much (if at all) after stirring yeast for three days in starter? A simple question for which there ought to be an empirical answer...

 

[Maylar]

Does the cell count increase and by how much (if at all) after stirring yeast for three days in starter? A simple question for which there ought to be an empirical answer...

Those questions are answered in Dr. Chris White's book ...

https://www.amazon.com/Yeast-Practical-Fermentation-Brewing-Elements/dp/0937381969

 

[bernardsmith]

I have that book and my understanding is that the cell count does NOT increase. The viability does. But that is not the same..

 

[Baabaadoo]

According to this interpretation, viable yeast population does increase in starters.

 

[Drewed]

I started with 1.6L of water boiled with 160g of amber DME. This was cooled to ~99 and then a packet of Nottingham was sprinkled on top. After 30min a stir bar was added and the starter was placed on a stir plate for ~12 hrs. This was then placed in the fridge for another 12 hrs and decanted to pour off most of the liquid. I poured the rest into the separatory funnel and this is the result after

That is a 1L funnel. I would say that the volume has increased noticeably. I would guess that some is due to swelling from re-hydration, but I would also assume that number of cells has also increased.