yeast starter WL0002

[Bombeque]

Hey guys, I will be brewing a russial imperial stout this weekend and made a starter yesterday. I used 1 cup of DME and 2 pinches of yeast nutrient that came with the starter kit. Added this to 1800ml of water and boiled for 15 mins. Cooled it to 75 and pitched the yeast, which was arould 72. I swirl it every chance I get but am not seeing a lot of action. It is fermenting, but very slowly. Is this normal for starters? How do I tell when its ready? It will be 36 hours old upon using.


Thanks

 

[mux]

does the white cake on the bottom of your container seem to be getting larger?

 

[Daybis]

I usually let my starters get go for 24-48 hours before pitching. I know mine gets close to being ready by how milky/cloudy the yeast make the wort. You should also see a small krausen. If you are using a stir plate, you might not see or get a krausen.

 

[mux]

I don't let mine go for more than 24 hours.

 

[Bombeque]

does the white cake on the bottom of your container seem to be getting larger?

It "seems" to be getting larger but i cant tell for certain. I do see fermentation. Not much krausen like I was expecting. I cant see why it wouldnt be fermenting. I did everything right. I wont be pitching until saturday though so hopefully itll gain some speed. I have another vial of the same yeast, so if anything Ill pitch the starter and the other vial.

 

[mux]

You should see little tiny bubbles. Most importantly the colony should be growing. Good luck you did everything right. Keep up with sanitation and nothing should go wrong.

 

[lowlife]

Im curious how the attenuation would be in a ris since it is low, if not the lowest, attenuating yeast they make

 

[SocalNat]

When making a starter do you use an airlock, loosley cover it, or seal it air tight?

 

[mux]

When making a starter do you use an airlock, loosley cover it, or seal it air tight?

I cover it with sanitized tin foil. Works great.

 

[Bombeque]

Im curious how the attenuation would be in a ris since it is low, if not the lowest, attenuating yeast they make

I am using a recipe from the HBT site. Under stouts, it won first place, think it went down to 1.028

 

[Bombeque]

When making a starter do you use an airlock, loosley cover it, or seal it air tight?

Hi, its covered with foil. Sanitized with starsan. Def see little bubbles...

 

[lowlife]

I am using a recipe from the HBT site. Under stouts, it won first place, think it went down to 1.028

Cool! WLP002 is my favorite english yeast. I never thought to use it for a higher gravity beer. I might have to try it on something different.

 

[Bombeque]

Well, an update. I cold crashed the starter because I wasnt able to brew saturday due to weather. Figured It would be safer to keep the yeast cold while waiting. The night before brew day I took the starter out to warm up over night. The OG on the stout I am using this for turned out to be 1.100 OG. I was worried that even the starter would not be enough yeast, so I pitched another vial along with the starter (yeast at 70, wort at 75). Shook the heck out of the bucket for 5 mins to aerate, put it in the basement and let her go. I noticed a little airlock activity about four hours later. So I went ahead and installed a blow off tube. In the morning I expected to see krausen bubbling out of the overflow, but just a steady bubbling is all. My basement is cool. Being gone all day and afraid that it might get too hot from fermentation, I put the bucket in a tub of water. From reading other posts that use 002, I see that its pretty active. Shouldnt I see more activity by now? Its been about 16 hours since pitching. Am I able to add yeast nutrient at this stage if need be?

 

[pabloj13]

Well, an update. I cold crashed the starter because I wasnt able to brew saturday due to weather. Figured It would be safer to keep the yeast cold while waiting. The night before brew day I took the starter out to warm up over night. The OG on the stout I am using this for turned out to be 1.100 OG. I was worried that even the starter would not be enough yeast, so I pitched another vial along with the starter (yeast at 70, wort at 75). Shook the heck out of the bucket for 5 mins to aerate, put it in the basement and let her go. I noticed a little airlock activity about four hours later. So I went ahead and installed a blow off tube. In the morning I expected to see krausen bubbling out of the overflow, but just a steady bubbling is all. My basement is cool. Being gone all day and afraid that it might get too hot from fermentation, I put the bucket in a tub of water. From reading other posts that use 002, I see that its pretty active. Shouldnt I see more activity by now? Its been about 16 hours since pitching. Am I able to add yeast nutrient at this stage if need be?

My last 1056 batch did the same thing. Had airlock activity and a bit of churning within 5 hours. Then just a thin krausen for a while. Then at about 30 hours it took off like a rocket.

 

[Coff]

You have nothing to worry about., every fermentation is different. Just bc you dont have an explosive blowoff doesnt mean its not working.

At what temperature are you fermenting at? You say you put it in an ice bath that could be a bit too cold. If you dont have a temperature sticker on your fermenter just check the ambient temperature, you should be fermenting 5-8 degrees above ambient at the peak of fermentation.

 

[Bombeque]

Thanks for the replies, Because my very first batch of beer fermented too hot, Im super careful about temp now. I had to leave the house a 0430 and wont be back until 2000, so putting it in water was just some insurance for me. Figured I can always adjsut the temp up with no bad results. Not so much the other way around. No ice in the tub, just cold water. I ran out of the sticky thermometers, so thats helpful information. I plan on getting a few more tomorrow though.

 

[Bombeque]

Just an update, when I got home last night it was steady bubblin, a lot. But no overflow which is good. Dont have the thermometer on that one but its in a tub of cold water. It hasnt slowed down when I checked it this morning. Put a 15lb peice of frozen meat in the water to keep it cool while Im at work today. Also I just checked my batch of saison I made 10 days ago, was 1.008. It had an sg of 1.070 and was worried that it wouldnt finish properly because my mash temp was 156! Lesson learned, just gotta wait.

 

[Coff]

Most Saison yeasts are pretty big attenuators so 1.008 sounds about right especially at such high mash temp. What strain did you use?

 

[Bombeque]

Most Saison yeasts are pretty big attenuators so 1.008 sounds about right especially at such high mash temp. What strain did you use?

It was the forbidden fruit from Wyeast. Will it get lower you think? Its already sitting at 8.14%! I didnt plan for it to be this high in abv, but I wont argue. I dont think I want it much dryer, its still very cloudy though. Thinking of bottling this weekend and adding gelatin.