Yeast starter Q

[WhatsOnTap]

Hey guys,

I was reading up on the starter threads yesterday and decided to make one. I followed a recipe by W. Moore for waking commercial yeast from the dead that contained 20 oz water, 3 hop pellets, and 2 tbs. DME. Everything was sterilized and cooled to around 75 or 80 when I pitched some Nottingham yeast. It had a krausen and was bubbling and roiling furiously within 30 minutes. This morning the bubbling had slowed a lot but there was an inch and a half of white (yeast?) sediment on the bottom of the bottle. Is this fast of a ferment normal in a starter??

 

[Walker]

seems ok to me. my starters are usually 'done' within 24 hours.

-walker

 

[cgravier]

yup thats sounds normal...sometimes you dont get much activity (kreusen) at all. a starter will usually be kind of low gravity (1.040) and should be 'done' within 48 hrs.

 

[WhatsOnTap]

Good deal. This is my 1st starter. I finished cooling and topping up my American Cream Ale for my brother's wedding and sanitized the outside of the starter bottle. I sniffed the top of the starter and it smelled yeasty, alright. I pitched it in and put the lid on so here's hoping...

 

[WhatsOnTap]

Well, Houston we have liftoff! It wasn't bubbling 7 hrs after pitching and I started thinking, "I didn't stir in the yeast, I just poured it over the top." So I picked up the fermentor and rocked it back and forth, then spun it a little and, BLOOP, there goes the airlock Hasn't stopped ever since and now is going better than any brew I've done yet :rockin: Here's to starters

 

[cweston]

Cool.

I've pitched Wyeast straight from the smack pack and gotten excellent results. But I'm hooked on starters anyway--the assurance of seeing your yeast working in the starter (plus a homebrew or three) greatly reduces worry. And fermentation in the primary takes off much quicker when you pitch a starter.