Re-cultured Chimay Starter Problems.

[praxis178]

Ok, so the plan was to do a Belgian beer tasting and then use the yeast slurry from the bottles to build a starter for a Belgian triple, but things haven't quite gone to plan....

The tasting went great, everyone loved the beers, and a small vote was taken to decide on a the style of the triple and a recipe worked up. Now so far so good, but after pitching the slurry to get the starter going more than 12hrs ago (now closer to 18hrs ago) there hasn't been any change in the SG of the starter wort, and although there is condensation visible in the starter vessel no other signs of activity is evident.

So can I safely assume that the bottle slurry was either dead or in such poor health that the room temp (~21C) wort killed?

Which now brings me to the what are my options bit:

option one: wait longer in case there are still some live cells and they are just slow to breed up.
option two: no chill the wort and get a smack pack from CB when I'm in Brissy tomorrow and inoculate when I get home.
option three: use the Belgian Wit yeast slant I have in the fridge.

Personally I'm angling towards a hybrid option one/two (leave the starter to see if it starts firing, but still get the smack pack tomorrow)......

 

[manticle]

Hybrid (1 and 2) makes the most sense

 

[praxis178]

Hybrid (1 and 2) makes the most sense

Thanks mate, sounds like a plan now!

 

[praxis178]

Ok, so the "new" starter (SG ~1.050, plus the boiled remains of the previous one) was inoculated yesterday with a well in date Wyeast 1214 smack pack, but now almost a day later is also showing little to no signs of life, so to help figure this out here is how I made the starter wort....

80g of DME
40g of Cooper's BE2
220g of Cooper's tinned goo (pale ale)
Boiling water to make up to 1L. This was allowed to then cool to room temp. <this lot includes the remains of the previous starter>

In another vessel (4L carboy) I put 1L of boiling water and sealed the vessel sloshed and let cool. The two were then combined and shaken well to aerate then the room temp smack pack (smacked 6hrs previously, and still no swelling) was added. The lot was then placed on the stir plate and kept at 22C.

Now I know this yeast is slow to start but after 18hrs at 22c it should be showing some activity by now, right?

So is there something I should have done differently for this yeast strain?

 

[Wolfy]

Given that the smack-pack provides ideal (and sterile) growing conditions for the yeast, I'd have made sure it swelled nicely before pitching it.

As for the original starter, what was it made from, are you sure the bottle has live-yeast?
Also what volume did you use for the starter? If the bottle-dregs were pitched into a 1L starter, I don't think it would have been unreasonable to wait 3-4 days (or longer) before deciding it was a dud. The yeast needs acclimatise to the wort and then reproduce before it will start fermenting (and you'll notice a change in gravity) which could well take some time.

 

[praxis178]

Given that the smack-pack provides ideal (and sterile) growing conditions for the yeast, I'd have made sure it swelled nicely before pitching it.

As for the original starter, what was it made from, are you sure the bottle has live-yeast?
Also what volume did you use for the starter? If the bottle-dregs were pitched into a 1L starter, I don't think it would have been unreasonable to wait 3-4 days (or longer) before deciding it was a dud. The yeast needs acclimatise to the wort and then reproduce before it will start fermenting (and you'll notice a change in gravity) which could well take some time.

The original volume for the original starter was 200ml, and as I didn't bother to unpack the microscope and do some smears I can't attest to the viability of the bottle yeast, but I did give it three days to prove it's worth before boiling it up with the new material for the new starter.

I'm happy to report that the new starter is now starting to build a nice, if muse like, krousen so I guess all is well in yeast land after all.

 

[Wolfy]

The original volume for the original starter was 200ml, and as I didn't bother to unpack the microscope and do some smears I can't attest to the viability of the bottle yeast, but I did give it three days to prove it's worth before boiling it up with the new material for the new starter.

I was just suggesting that you may have been using bottles that had been pasteurized and if you knew that the yeast from the brand/bottles you were using has been re-cultured successfully by others - which is probably covered in the thread topic that I neglected to notice.