Made A Starter.....no Start

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Byran

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I made a starter as I usually do with some saved yeast slurry from a batch I did in march this year.

Same as always, kept some wort from a boil and pitched at room temp with an air lock. Its been a day and a bit and I got no love in my bottle.

Should I just buy another vial or smacky?

I think I have unintentionally and unexpectedly killed my yeast strain. :(

Its a WLP380 Hefeweizen IV strain but its only done one cycle.

Absolutely gutted its my first fatality.........
 
I made a starter as I usually do with some saved yeast slurry from a batch I did in march this year.

Same as always, kept some wort from a boil and pitched at room temp with an air lock. Its been a day and a bit and I got no love in my bottle.

Should I just buy another vial or smacky?

I think I have unintentionally and unexpectedly killed my yeast strain. :(

Its a WLP380 Hefeweizen IV strain but its only done one cycle.

Absolutely gutted its my first fatality.........

What's the SG of the starter?

And, 5 months is quite a while. Most of the yeast would have been dead.
 
Maybe its just got no krausen?
 
Mine usually start up a day after I give up and pitch a backup yeast.
 
What's the SG of the starter?

And, 5 months is quite a while. Most of the yeast would have been dead.

Well its the a run off from a weizen I made so about 1.045?
And yes thats what I was thinkin too, but ive had yeast stored in the fridge for literally years and had it start back up fine.
I guess only time will tell........

Otherwise ill just bite the bullet and get another vial.
 
Well its the a run off from a weizen I made so about 1.045?

Measure whether the starter has had its SG reduced by fermentation. This will tell you whether it has viable yeast in it. Wouldn't be the first starter ever to ferment out in the blink of an eye.
 
Check the pH, drops before any sign of SG drop (by means of facilitated transport and the hydrogen atoms coming back into the wort ...)

Scotty
 
Unbelievably, the starter has begun to ferment, and has fermented furiously after almost a week of absolute dormancy. It has a nice film of yeast cake now and smells as it should, of clove and spice.

Wow.
 
The slow start could be related to the temperature it was kept at and also the number of viable cells in the slurry (that was a bit old).
 
The slow start could be related to the temperature it was kept at and also the number of viable cells in the slurry (that was a bit old).
Yeh Wolfy, I done some reading on the white labs website about reculturing and they reckon the viability is up the shit if you reculture anyway so i think i prob only had a few hundred viable cells, instead of a few hundred billion. Hence the lag time.
Also it mentions the lack of healthy yeast and added stress reculturing puts on the colony creating undesirables, often. :eek: Im going to make another starter and see if I can create a better result next time lol.
I had a talk with Don Burke about this the other day and he was aerating his starters with oxygen also. Swears by it now. I will have to have a look at that too.
I did notice also that the yeast cake I used had some really bitter flavours from the previous batch that carried through the starter.
I dont like that.
I fucked it off anyway now Im not pitching that mess into one of my beloved beers.
Im gonna get a fresh smacky or another vial.
Its been cool to see how such a small amount of yeast can literally bring a bottle of wort to life though.
 
Its been cool to see how such a small amount of yeast can literally bring a bottle of wort to life though.
Another future option - when dealing with low cell counts - is to pitch a small amount into a small volume starter, and then step that up gradually until you reach the size of starter you need. That way the final starter really only has freshly grown healthy yeast and is not stressed during the process of making the starter.
 
Strictly speaking, if it didn't fire, it's not a STARTER, but who's quibbling??
 
Another future option - when dealing with low cell counts - is to pitch a small amount into a small volume starter, and then step that up gradually until you reach the size of starter you need. That way the final starter really only has freshly grown healthy yeast and is not stressed during the process of making the starter.
Agreed, Yeh that's what I do with my slants, but I poured a shipload of slurry into this one. Must have just been a shit batch.

Cheers for the thoughts.
 
I had a talk with Don Burke about this the other day and he was aerating his starters with oxygen also. Swears by it now.

my worts are also oxygenated with o2, via a 0.5 micron airstone at 1l/min for 60 secs for 20 litres or 120 sec for 40 litres

i have notice a cleaner and more consistent ferment, likened to sending in a team of experienced tradesmen to do a job, no chit chat, they just get in there and do the job they are supposed to do, steadily and consistently, then get out of there

prior to using the oxygen, i occasionally had some flavours i presume were related to yeast health and count. i dont think i was getting enough aeration by simply allowing the cooled wort to pour via hose in the fermenter from the kettle ... plus i'm not hercules and cant pick up 40 litres of wort to shake it

and as for the yeast you are using, a couple of years ago i picked up 2 vials that were about a year out of date for $5 total. i made a starter, probably 2 litres, it took a few days to fire up, i then pitched into 20 litres of hefeweizen and had the most ferocious ferment i'd ever seen, ended up with krausen all over the floor, beer was fantastic and had all the yummy signature flavours of a hefeweizen. a calculated underpitch of a hefeweizen can be conducive to those desirable sought after flavours
 

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