Yeast starter didn't take off, repitch?

[anbowden]

I made a yeast starter with a 4 month old Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch) packet. 20 hours later, no activity. Is it too early to call this yeast DOA(it was shipped during the summer)? Is it too late to pitch a new packet of yeast into my yeast starter wort?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[kh54s10]

Take a look at the color of the starter. If it went from translucent to milky, it has at least started. If you have a refractometer you can take a gravity reading.

Is it on a stirplate? I often see very little activity. If you are just doing intermittent shaking it may take another day or two.

 

[IslandLizard]

Is it on a stir plate? Did the color get lighter compared to when you pitched?

It is very possible most cells are dead from the hot shipping, so growth will be slow and minimal, and hard to detect.

You could take a refractometer sample and see if there's any change in gravity from the original. Use a correction formula, since some alcohol maybe present.

I would probably count on making a new starter after 2 days of stirring without any appreciable change, although you can build one up from a only a few million surviving cells if you have patience and time.

 

[anbowden]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I don't have a refractometer unfortunately.
I'm doing the ol intermittent swirling technique, no stir plate.
I 'm thinking it's more translucent than "milky", but it looks like the trub level has increased a little. Is it possible I'm trying to grow from such a minimal amount of live yeast cells that this is a fruitless effort? Any way to confirm?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[anbowden]

Past the 24 hour mark, is it too late to pitch a new packet/vial? I'd rather not waste my yeast starter.

 

[pshankstar]

I did a starter last week with a vial of White Labs 008 yeast that was expired. When I picked it up for $2, I thought it had a best by date of 1/1/16, but instead it was 1/1/15 (almost 2 years old). Well I went ahead and did a starter (with yeast nutrient) and it took about 3 days before the color changed as others have mentioned and I saw a small amount of krause/foam start to build up. The color change is the biggest indicator in my opinion and others (I'm sure).

Unfortunately due to this long time, I couldn't use it for my batch that our club did this past weekend. I started the starter on Friday morning, we brewed on Saturday, but the starter wasn't showing signs until Sunday night. Monday morning I moved it to the fridge to cold crash it and today I decanted it and moved it to a sanitized mason jar. This will give me a reason to maybe brew again this weekend and use it.

 

[petrolSpice]

Any way to confirm?

Hydrometer.

It's not uncommon for a starter not to show signs of activity. It would be silly to make any further decisions without testing the gravity and comparing that to the OG.

 

[anbowden]

I did a starter last week with a vial of White Labs 008 yeast that was expired. When I picked it up for $2, I thought it had a best by date of 1/1/16, but instead it was 1/1/15 (almost 2 years old). Well I went ahead and did a starter (with yeast nutrient) and it took about 3 days before the color changed as others have mentioned and I saw a small amount of krause/foam start to build up. The color change is the biggest indicator in my opinion and others (I'm sure).

Unfortunately due to this long time, I couldn't use it for my batch that our club did this past weekend. I started the starter on Friday morning, we brewed on Saturday, but the starter wasn't showing signs until Sunday night. Monday morning I moved it to the fridge to cold crash it and today I decanted it and moved it to a sanitized mason jar. This will give me a reason to maybe brew again this weekend and use it.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have until Friday morning, so I have 3 days from the time I made it yesterday. How confident would you be using that yeast starter?

Hydrometer.

It's not uncommon for a starter not to show signs of activity. It would be silly to make any further decisions without testing the gravity and comparing that to the OG.

I actually meant, "Any way to confirm I'm not building up from a tiny amount of living yeast cells? (and maybe not worthwhile)" I feel confident in identifying the visual cues of fermentation in my yeast starter.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[pshankstar]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have until Friday morning, so I have 3 days from the time I made it yesterday. How confident would you be using that yeast starter?

Thanks,
Andy

I would have used the yeast from the starter had it been ready. I've done starters in the past with expired yeast without any issues. This one happened to be the oldest one.

I will use it on my next brew day. Hopefully later this week or next week.

 

[anbowden]

At the 48 hour mark I finally started to see some early signs of fermentation. Now at hour ~53 its taking off. Hopefully it will finish before late tonight so I can refrigerate to decant tomorrow.
It's like Tom Petty said: the waiting is the hardest part.

 

[pshankstar]

At the 48 hour mark I finally started to see some early signs of fermentation. Now at hour ~53 its taking off. Hopefully it will finish before late tonight so I can refrigerate to decant tomorrow.

It's like Tom Petty said: the waiting is the hardest part.

I seem to have noticed that different strains and their viability will all have different times with starters. Some are very quick while others are just slow going.

Great news though!! [emoji106]