# Advice re yeast stir plate



## EagleMick (13/11/16)

I've had a few batches of Wyeast not activate on me recently when pitched direct so I just invested in a heated stir plate to see if that helps!

I'm making a batch of red ale today so made my first starter on Friday night. I used 1.1litre water to 100g DME to allow for boil off, cooled to 20 and then pitched WLP004 which had been out of the fridge for 3-4 hours. First time using the stir plate so I only had it on 400rpm since Friday night. checked this morning and there's no krausen. Temp is fine if a little high at 22 degrees so I upped the stir plate speed so you can see a decent vortex.

My question is will the yeast be ready by this evening to pitch or should I just rehydrate some dry yeast I bought in reserve?

Really don't want to spoil another batch of beer from yeast not working!

Thanks for any advice!

Mick


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## Yob (13/11/16)

Firstly, no image or link attached, 

Secondly, you 'may' not see much activity as there will be **** all growth at that volume and pitching a whole pack..


Was the pack old? What is the gravity of the wort it's going on?


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## EagleMick (13/11/16)

Yob said:


> Firstly, no image or link attached,
> 
> Secondly, you 'may' not see much activity as there will be **** all growth at that volume and pitching a whole pack..
> 
> ...



Sorry I haven't posted much. I couldn't attach a pic so I've included a url for it, looking slightly better than this morning!

[SIZE=10pt]The yeast was fresh, packaged in Oct. I didn't measure the wort gravity before pitching. What do you mean the volume and pitch was wrong? I followed the ratio's in Wolfy's post on this forum.[/SIZE]
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7PCWmqot6_XU0RuUDNWNE5QdU0


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## Yob (13/11/16)

well if you dont know your gravity, how do you know how much yeast you need?

1 pack is enough to inoculate 23L, how much growth do you expect pitching the same amount to 1L?

Usually, on a month old pack, I'd not do a starter, its still fresh.. did it swell when you smacked it?


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## kaiserben (14/11/16)

OP mentioned Wyeast, but then says this batch is WLP004 (White Labs Irish Ale), so it won't have been smacked/swelled. 

OP said packaged in October, so if we assume (worst-case sacenario) it was packaged October 1st then viability is at 67%. 

​A 1L starter will see him reach (theoretically) 183 billion viable cells, which would be enough to reach the recommended amount to ferment 23L of wort with an OG of 1.043. 

But seeing as OP probably doesn't care that much about exact cell counts for his original gravity, and just wants to pitch his starter into his wort without decanting, the answer to his question is yes, after 72 it'll be more than ready to pitch.


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