Starter not starting?

[trq]

First attempt at a starter here.

I know everyone says not to bother creating a starter from a dry yeast sash, but it was laying around so I thought I'd give it a shot for fun. I also used to of the Coopers "yeast enhancer 3" in place of any LME, again, it was lying around.

Anyway, I boiled 2 & 1/2 cups of water, with 1 cup of the "yeast enhancer" for about 10 minutes, cooled it to about 21 degrees, and pitched the standard yeast included with a Coopers pale ale.

It's been 48 hours now, and I'm still not really sure if it has or hasn't fermented. I don't have any krausen, but I do have a slight buildup at the bottom. It's milky throughout, and when I give it a bit of a swirl, it gets a far bit of a head on it.

I have a Coopers Pale Ale kit here I'm keen to give it a shot with, just wondering if anyone has any opinions on whether or not it would be ready to use, or if it's even worth using

Here some shots I have taken, before and after swirling.

 

[Phoney]

Looks to me like it's mostly fermented out. Leave it another half a day then pop it in the fridge for a day or two until it all settles on the bottom. Then carefully pour off the top 2/3 of clear liquid, bring the rest up to room temp then swirl and pitch!


Next time, try picking up a packet of yeast like Safale US-05 or Mangrove Jack M44 - you should notice a big improvement from kit lid yeast.

 

[Adr_0]

Yep all looks good. Some starters won't show much activity at all, then after a few days you get a layer of yeast on the bottom. Subsequent steps may then have a nice good krausen/head formed on them.

Main concerns with a starter, assuming everything is thoroughly sanitised and not exposed to air, is getting the wort within 5-10°C of the yeast. If you exceed that you will shock the yeast, and if you're on the high side you will likely kill it.

 

[Rocker1986]

I regularly pitch refrigerated (harvested) yeast into room temp starters and main batches without any trouble at all. If anything the lag times are a lot quicker, I often notice starters forming krausens at 2-4 hours after pitching the yeast. The latest one that went into a batch today I did a viability test on for shits and giggles at harvesting time, which came out at 98.25%. The proper batches have also fermented well and turned out perfectly fine.

I think if you go the other way, i.e. pitching warm yeast into cold wort, is when you have problems with yeast shocking and possible death.

 

[Andy_27]

I made a 500ml starter out of a 6 month old Wyeast pack last week. It was on a stir plate and had no krausen at all (Not too strange given the stiring). I chilled after 24 hours before stepping it up to a 2L starter. The 2L starter had a 1 to 2cm krausen after about 6 hours.... same yeast. Sometimes you'll get a krausen, others not.

Also, I agree, pitching cold yeast into warm wort works fine, I've never had a problem.

 

[Randai]