first yeast starter

[Moad]

I captured some slurry of us 05, washed and stored in fridge. Prob 5 mls or so of yeast.

As an experiment to practice I made a 250ml starter and put it on the stirplate.

Its been 2 days and it is mainly foam. 150 mls of liquid and the rest foam.

Did I over pitch the starter or is this normal?

I dont need the starter so I'm not desperate to save it but was planning on stepping up to 5 L for next weekend to save using fresh packs.

It smells good and is creamy in color

 

[boybrewer]

That's fine if you believe you have enough to pitch , either that or keep adding to the starter. Once it settles ( the foam that is ) place it in the fridge so the yeast settles out decant off the excess wort and pitch onto the fresh batch making sure the starter is around the same temp as the fresh wort . Watch the ferment take off in a couple of hours instead of days .

P.S No you didn't over pitch just keep adding fresh wort and build up the starter . You will be surprised at how long it can take to build up a starter to a pitchable amount .

 

[Moad]

OK cool I'll keep stepping up until I get to 5 (80L batch). Just wasn't sure about the foam.


I guess another question is when stepping up do you decant most of the original starter or include that in the next step?

 

[boybrewer]

What ever you find works for you . Either or . I am a bit lazy and just keep adding to the wort . If you decant make sure most of the yeast has settled out otherwise you will be dumping good yeast down the drain .