My yeast starter getting too hot?

[SimoB]

Hi All,

I woke up this morning and my yeast starter was freezing! thus resulting in lower activity than expected. So, before work, I placed it on my heat mat. I'm sitting at work now thinking, is it going to be too hot now? I managed to get the stir plate to work through it, slowly but it was working.

You think it will be OK by the time I get home, or have a ruined my lovely Super yeast vial???

Cheers,
Simon

 

[NewtownClown]

It will be fine - probably close to complete! You will want to crash it and decant off the nasty ester ridden beer before pitching

 

[SimoB]

Awesome, cheers Clown.

I made a bigger starter and saving 500ml of the starter to put in the fridge.. would you decant and fill up with distilled water, or will the estery business leave when I decant the beer and start the new starter?

 

[NewtownClown]

If I was to use it in a day or two, I'd leave it as is. Any longer, I'd decant and mix with distilled water - for no reason other than assuaging my paranoia and knowing that planned brews can often be delayed

 

[SimoB]

using it on Sunday, the 500ml im saving will be for a few weeks, I might just decant and place some fresh water on it.

 

[NewtownClown]

using it on Sunday, the 500ml im saving will be for a few weeks, I might just decant and place some fresh water on it.

Make sure the water temp is close to the yeast slurry temp so as not to shock the yeast

 

[Rocker1986]

The first post on this thread may be of some interest regarding storing yeast under distilled water - it's one reason I don't bother doing it and just leave it under the spent starter wort.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=451925

 

[SimoB]

The first post on this thread may be of some interest regarding storing yeast under distilled water - it's one reason I don't bother doing it and just leave it under the spent starter wort.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=451925

Cheers for that, how about leaving the estery starter wort above the yeast in the fridge for 3 weeks before use??

 

[Rocker1986]

I don't know enough about it to say with certainty one way or the other whether that would have any effect on anything. The logical side of my brain suggests that the effect would be minimal - I mean how many esters really can hide in 20 or 30mL of yeast or whatever ends up at the bottom of the jar? Compared to a full size 23 or so litre batch of beer it's miniscule. Would they even end up in it at all? I'm not aware of esters coagulating and floccing out of solution. h34r:

I do the same thing with my starters - overbuild them, steal some into a jar for use on the starter for the next batch to do the same again, then crash the remainder of the current starter in the fridge before decanting and pitching a day or two later. The starters are fermented at whatever the ambient in the kitchen is, and I haven't noticed any ill effects from keeping the harvested yeast in the fridge under the spent wort so far.

It's up to you whether or not to keep the yeast in the jar under the "beer" or replace it with distilled water, if it was me in the situation though, I probably wouldn't bother personally.