Starters

[barls]

ok guys whats the longest you have waited for a starter to kick up. im currently up to 4 days on an irish ale yeast i may have missed it but im fairly sure i havent. am i better off tipping this one out or just waiting

 

[matti]

I made a starter with ringwood yeast and allowed it to ferment out over 6-7 days.
once I pitched it and aerated it it took about 12 hour to kick off. High krausen in two days.

The yeast is much sturdier and viable fermented out.

pitch it when you are ready. Just ensure it taste good and smell nice....

 

[Thirsty Boy]

How you doing your starter?

I almost never see any visible activity when I have mine on the stirplate, but if I take them off and let them start fermenting... then I get krausen etc. Freaks me out to be perfectly honest. But there does seem to be plenty of yeast at the end of the whole process.

But I assume this one is behaving differently to your normal ones?

 

[braufrau]

ok guys whats the longest you have waited for a starter to kick up. im currently up to 4 days on an irish ale yeast i may have missed it but im fairly sure i havent. am i better off tipping this one out or just waiting

I wait one or two days and then step it up for another one or two.
If its on the stir plate I don't get krausen, just gas and cloudy yeast building up.

I put the cap on loosely and so its hard to tell if its producing CO2. I used to put it on tightly but one day I undid the lid and it came off with a bang, hurt my hand and bent the lid!

 

[barls]

about 50 to 100g of dme to about a litre of water then on to the stirplate on its slowest speed till i see krausen which even at its longest it about 1.5 days ive just stopped the plate and ill check it in the morning. i might pitch it tomorrow night on the cube ive got sitting there. as i said this is the longest ive had

 

[mika]

My starters are usually pretty un-exciting except for the airlock bloop. Give 'em a good shake up and you should see something though. No krausen ring ? If you've stopped the stirplate, look for the layer of yeast in the bottom of the flask. Not wearing pants while waiting for your starter to wake up may also help

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Just hijacking Barls' thread a little - I often buy the old and therefore cheap smackpacks from G&G and I stick them on the stirplate to grow up (hopefully) Now, given that I usually see no activity when its on the stirplate and when I stop it... well there is going to be a layer of yeast because I know there was yeast in there - it just whether its dead or alive.

Any hints on how to tell if I have created new viable yeast, or whether I simply have a layer of dead yeast on the bottom of my flask?

O know I can feed it a little new wort and leave it off the plate to look for activity, but mainly I just want to know if I have increased my yeast poplation of any activity is from teh few yeast cells that might have been alive anyway.

I know its probably all working fine, I'm just a bit paranoid and not really experienced with the liquid yeasts

 

[barls]

thats alright its basically the same question i was asking anyway.

 

[mika]

That's a hard one, think you really got to know your yeast and what colour it looks like when it's healthy. Don't ask me, I'm colourblind so I just look for the bubbles.

 

[Screwtop]

Any hints on how to tell if I have created new viable yeast, or whether I simply have a layer of dead yeast on the bottom of my flask?

I take gravity readings to indicate what stage the starter is at. If it's dropped from 40 to say 12 in a couple of days then the yeast is good and healthy and it's time for another feed (step).

 

[kabooby]

I dont use a stir plate and almost always get a krausen. This settles after a few days and I get a nice layer of yeast on the bottom. I think the best way to know if it is starting is to take gravity readings. 100g of malt in 1 litre of water should put you pretty close to 1040.

Kabooby

 

[nick_lavender]

Hey,

I made a belgian Wit beer starter last night using 200g DME, 2 ltrs water and the dregs from 4 commercial bottles of Wit beer.

I've seen no activity at all, but I can see a small layer of yeast forming on the bottom of the bottle after 12 hours.

I've always been able to tell if the yeast is healthy by the colour, white and fluffy is great, dark brown not so great!

Cheers

 

[maltedhopalong]

I think the easiest thing to do is presume it has and step it up again. It'll be easier to see if any activity happens in the bigger starter and also with the bigger volume, you'll have enough to take gravity readings.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Hey,

I made a belgian Wit beer starter last night using 200g DME, 2 ltrs water and the dregs from 4 commercial bottles of Wit beer.

I've seen no activity at all, but I can see a small layer of yeast forming on the bottom of the bottle after 12 hours.

I've always been able to tell if the yeast is healthy by the colour, white and fluffy is great, dark brown not so great!

Cheers

I would have thought 2 litres as your first starter would be too great a volume even with 4 stubbies of bottle yeast.

I always start off my starters with no more than 250ml of wort on my first starter and then double the amount from there on once the starter has fermented out. I don't use a stirplate, and like kabooby I always see krausen.

C&B
TDA

 

[warrenlw63]

I would have thought 2 litres as your first starter would be too great a volume even with 4 stubbies of bottle yeast.

+1 That's way too much starter wort.

If I make starters from bottle yeasts I start off with around 200-500ml wort also. For the first generation I put this in a sanitised PET bottle with the lid on instead of an airlock. Then I usually shake it periodically. What's good about this method is it allows the PET bottle to harden up which is a visible indicator of outgassing (read; starter working). Then I regularly crack the lid to bleed off the gas.

After that it's into a demijohn with an airlock.

Warren -

 

[nick_lavender]

Seems like I've accidentily used a massive starter (200g DME, 2lt water) to culture these commercial beer yeasts!

So far there is very thin layer of yeast on the bottom, buts its fairly dark in colour.

Will this cause any problems?

What should I do next? Put it in the fridge for a few hours, drain the wort and add the yeast to say a 100gm DME and a 1 lt starter?

Cheers.

 

[KillerRx4]

Barls, often when I start up an old culture I dont see any activity after a few days. A taste test will be sure to tell you if its fermented out. Then step it up.

Moonee, yours is probably still in its growth stage for the small cell count into the 2lt volume. Let it go for another day or 2 then taste test it.

 

[barls]

just had a look at it just now and its nice and light in colour im most likely going to to step it up before using it in a beer depending on a taste test