Yeast Starter question

[delmucho]

First time using a yeast starter and I think I jacked it up. I started it on Friday around 10 and it hasn't really had a real god kick off on the fermentation. I followed the instructions and it said to put the dme and the yeast nutrients in the boil.

My apt has been around 72 degrees

I did have a boil over and lost about 200ml.

Any thoughts? Where did I mess up? or is it still ok to pitch tomorrow?

 

[brewkinger]

If you boiled the yeast then you are better off making a new starter.
Those yeast are dead or mortally wounded.

Boil and cool the DME wort and then pitch the nutrient and give it a swirl then pitch the yeast and let it go.

 

[delmucho]

I didn't boil the yeast but I did boil the nutrient and it boiled over. The damn thing doesn't have any krausen or residue from it. I can see activity in the flask but there is no Krausen just what looks like a yeast cake. Did I miss the entire fermentation? or did I just really mess it up? Also no stir plate

and by activity I mean I see tiny bubbles coming up.

 

[bxtzd3]

nutrient at flame out, 15 min. and swirl the flask everytime you pass it. i would just pitch a new yeast or if its above 1.060 then 2 packs. thats what im doing until i get a decent yeast harvest of different yeast and get my stir plate going. just follow the packs direction

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Sounds to me like it's doing fine. It's not uncommon to never see karousen on a starter. Especially if it's on a stir plate.

 

[Demus]

Ditto. Krausen comes from higher gravity wort with hops and specialty grains. Don't expect a big foam up from a liter or two of 1.035-1.040 light DME. Your description sounds like the starter did what it should. Follow the numbers in mr.malty or yeast.calc and you should be good...

 

[JonM]

Pour a little of the top liquid into your sample tube and check the gravity with your hydrometer. If it's less than what you started with, it's working .

I've had plenty of starters do their thing with no outward indication of anything. It's probably fine. Cheers!