Yeast culture question?

[Scuba]

On Friday I harvested yeast from three bottles of bells two hearted and began my first try at culturing. Started with 200ml water/20g DME. Two days later I stepped up to 400ml water/40g DME. Two days later stepped it up to 400ml water/80g DME.

The experiment appears to be working. I had excellent activity and the fermentation was generating what I can only describe as a creamy froth atop the brew about 1/2" thick. It looked like a creamy head on a beer. Throughout each step I noticed no airlock activity - nothing was escaping. I was using one of those airlocks with the two chambers. I checked and it was not clogged so I presume there just wasn't enough pressure to release the gas. I changed to the conventional airlock with the one chamber and immediately noticed that when I pulled the old lock off a lot of gas released. Now, with the new airlock I have good bubbling and a thin layer of activity atop the starter - more like I am accustomed to seeing.

My question is would the lack of gas escaping cause any problems with this starter either in terms of taste or otherwise? Thanks in advance.

 

[schweaty]

Don't put an airlock on the starter, use a piece of aluminum foil that fits loosely around the mouth of the Erlenmeyer/jar/jug. This way oxygen can get in and airborne bacteria can't. As far as the lack of airlock activity I wouldn't worry about it. If you can see fermentation taking place that is a much better indicator, especially if there is a thick layer of sediment at the bottom of your container. Sounds like you successfully harvested yeast from the original bottle, congrats!