# Overflowing yeast starter...



## menoetes (6/10/14)

Hi Brewheads,

So I've made a yeast start for my recultured Wyeast 1318 London III. I didn't measure the specific gravity of the wort but I added 350g of liquid malt extract to 2lts of water so I expected an OG a little over 1.050.

Anyway the 2lts of wort has been sitting in a 3lt erlenmeyer flask on my stir plate overnight and when I got up this morning it's krausen has grown massive and it's running down the sides of the flask from under the alfoil on top.

I'm planning to replace the alfoil with fresh stuff and clean up outside of the flask as best I can, should I be concerned about my yeast and possible infections?


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## mofox1 (6/10/14)

I'll probably end up with the same. :unsure:

I filled mine to the 3L mark (around 10 - 15cm headspace) and used ~400g DME because I did a fairly lazy pour and couldn't be bothered trying to tip it back into the bag. Not quite 1.050, but still a bit higher than intended. WLP007, which I've just discovered is one hell of an active strain. Dammit.

Replacing the foil should be fine. Maybe give the outside of the flask a bit of a clean, but don't go too close to the top otherwise you risk dripping some dirty sponge gunk into the flask.

Looking forward to cleaning up my mess tonight.


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## philmud (7/10/14)

Is it a full moon? I'm in the same boat, except no stir plate and I was using 2565 (kölsch). This was the second step for my starter, the first had virtually no krausen, but this one went ape shit. So does anyone think this is an infection risk? Also, in a 3L flask, how much starter wort would usually be the upper limit?


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## Mr. No-Tip (7/10/14)

How come you guys are making your starters so high? I've always understood the 1.030s to be the right gravity for a starter.


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## mofox1 (7/10/14)

Me - just a case of derp. Less hassle not to pour it back into the bag 

I usually go for 10g per 100ml (OG ~ 1.035) because it's easy to remember. And I can multiply by tens.


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## hoppy2B (7/10/14)

I've been making my starters of late out of goop. I heat some water in my flask and then dribble half a dozen spoons of Coopers Original Series Lager into it and dissolve by swirling followed by boiling. 

I figured the hops in it would help prevent infection. :blink:


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## philmud (7/10/14)

Mr. No-Tip said:


> How come you guys are making your starters so high? I've always understood the 1.030s to be the right gravity for a starter.


Yeah sorry, I didn't see that bit. I also use the 10g:100ml ratio, so an OG in the 30's


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## menoetes (8/10/14)

My high OG is due to heavy handed pouring of Liquid malt from a 15kg growler. Once that big heavy sticky mass gains momentum it's hard to stop.

_Me:_ I stopped pouring you 5 minutes ago, will you stop already?!
_Liquid Malt:_ Stop me? I'm the Juggernaut bitch!


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## Dunkelbrau (11/10/14)

From reading braukaisers experiments, around 1.020 gives the best growth from memory.. Will try find a link


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## Dunkelbrau (11/10/14)

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2013/05/28/starter-wort-gravity-and-yeast-growth/

Link!

The highest growth was 1.028 and then the 1.020, but it all looks reasonably marginal with viability below 10 Plato. I'll definitely be staying below 1.035 for my starter gravity.. 

Interesting comments about alcohol tolerance in higher gravity starters.


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## Mr. No-Tip (11/10/14)

Iiiinteresting. Maybe the 100g/1000ml trick has got to go, even though it's very convenient!


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## Bribie G (11/10/14)

I don't use stir plates etc but if I'm saving Wyeast cake I swirl the last bit of beer in the FV to get it the consistency of pouring cream then fill a PET and stick it in the fridge.
Last lot was Ringwood and even in the fridge it just kept on fermenting out very slowly - a characteristic of many UK ale yeasts that are supposed to do that in the cask in the cellar to keep a bit of sparkle in the ale.

On opening the bottle a crack last week, it was obviously going to be a gusher so I sealed it up, washed the outside of the bottle totally in strong starsan, rinsed off using boiled kettle water and then starsanned the plastic $4 four litre bucket I use for starters. Then I opened the bottle slightly and just let it do its thing till the bottle was standing in a nice pool of buttery yeast cake.

Remove bottle, seal up bucket then get some wort ready. Fermented out a mild ale brilliantly and it's now in the keg.


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