vortex
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 25/10/11
- Messages
- 412
- Reaction score
- 19
(Duplicated my post from another forum to try and get some other opinions on what is going on here..)
Recently I swapped a vial of Irish Ale 1084 for a slant of Pacman with peakydh on these forums. The slant only had a very small amount of yeast on it, so I made up a 25mL starter (in a seperate, new vial), and tipped in what I could shake loose from the slant.
In 24 hours there was a nice little cake in the bottom of the vial, so I shook that up and pitched to a 1L starter @ 1040SG and put it on the stirplate.
24 hours later again, i put it in the fridge to settle the yeast, of which there was a surprisingly large amount considering I had under 1mL 48 hours previous.
When the starter had settled out, I decanted the starter beer (I didn't taste it, usually I do..) and then tipped the slurry into vials, and this is where it's done something which is a bit strange...
Here's a pic:
Click the pic for a larger image
Left 5 vials in the front row are all Pacman, right hand side are all Recultured Coopers Sparkling Ale. The thing I am concerned about is the fluffy crap on top of the Pacman, I also have a couple of vials of 1056 which have done this too (you can see the 1056 in the background on the left hand side), and another from the same 1056 starter settled out straight away and looks like the Coopers yeast.
It's either just fermenting yeast, perhaps the starter hadn't fermented out fully before I put it into vials (the other 1056 vials are still the same a month later), but even when I shake the vial it separates out to look like that in just 30 mins.
Are they infected by a wild yeast perhaps?
I was wary about pitching to a 1L starter so quickly but I don't have any anything between the vial and the 2L flask yet that I trust for my yeast - I was actually planning to decant this beer off after 24hrs and add 1L of fresh again and let it run for another 24 hrs, but after just one run there was enough yeast for the vials so didn't bother.
Starters are always run in my pantry which has no air-movement at all. Erlenmeyer flasks are cleaned with PBW (at least 24hr soak after a starter) then when making up the wort they are boiled for at least 10 - 15mins with the dme/water in the flask itself. I always use foil on the flasks, always put on the flask prior to boiling so the steam sanitises the foil. Usually the foil gets a starsan prior to going onto the flask. Stirbars are always starsan'd, never boiled. The 25mL vial used foil to cover it, was quite tight around the neck. Erlenmeyer opening is flamed (with a kitchen stove lighter, might not be hot enough) prior to transferring to the vials. Only improvement I can think of would be to work next to an open flame when transferring yeast.
Thoughts?
Recently I swapped a vial of Irish Ale 1084 for a slant of Pacman with peakydh on these forums. The slant only had a very small amount of yeast on it, so I made up a 25mL starter (in a seperate, new vial), and tipped in what I could shake loose from the slant.
In 24 hours there was a nice little cake in the bottom of the vial, so I shook that up and pitched to a 1L starter @ 1040SG and put it on the stirplate.
24 hours later again, i put it in the fridge to settle the yeast, of which there was a surprisingly large amount considering I had under 1mL 48 hours previous.
When the starter had settled out, I decanted the starter beer (I didn't taste it, usually I do..) and then tipped the slurry into vials, and this is where it's done something which is a bit strange...
Here's a pic:
Click the pic for a larger image
Left 5 vials in the front row are all Pacman, right hand side are all Recultured Coopers Sparkling Ale. The thing I am concerned about is the fluffy crap on top of the Pacman, I also have a couple of vials of 1056 which have done this too (you can see the 1056 in the background on the left hand side), and another from the same 1056 starter settled out straight away and looks like the Coopers yeast.
It's either just fermenting yeast, perhaps the starter hadn't fermented out fully before I put it into vials (the other 1056 vials are still the same a month later), but even when I shake the vial it separates out to look like that in just 30 mins.
Are they infected by a wild yeast perhaps?
I was wary about pitching to a 1L starter so quickly but I don't have any anything between the vial and the 2L flask yet that I trust for my yeast - I was actually planning to decant this beer off after 24hrs and add 1L of fresh again and let it run for another 24 hrs, but after just one run there was enough yeast for the vials so didn't bother.
Starters are always run in my pantry which has no air-movement at all. Erlenmeyer flasks are cleaned with PBW (at least 24hr soak after a starter) then when making up the wort they are boiled for at least 10 - 15mins with the dme/water in the flask itself. I always use foil on the flasks, always put on the flask prior to boiling so the steam sanitises the foil. Usually the foil gets a starsan prior to going onto the flask. Stirbars are always starsan'd, never boiled. The 25mL vial used foil to cover it, was quite tight around the neck. Erlenmeyer opening is flamed (with a kitchen stove lighter, might not be hot enough) prior to transferring to the vials. Only improvement I can think of would be to work next to an open flame when transferring yeast.
Thoughts?
