Yeast Starter In Trouble....

[Green Iguana]

I made up a starter of 1.040 wort last yesterday....pitched a vial of whitelabs koelsch and shook it up for 5 mins....today there is no activity..the yeast has an expiration date of 24 june 2004.....

I need to do my mash today and am worried that i have dud yeast.......

I put the starter in the sink with some warm water about an hour ago....

Should i be patient or just write it off................

Cheers

 

[siiren]

I had the same problem yesterday morning with a Hefewiezen.
In the morning nothing much had happened to the starter.The date of the original pack was about the same as yours, and the starter made from a stored split of the original pack.

I went ahead and brewed anyway as I had to go to work last night - I work night shift. All went well, apart from a thermometer problem which I fixed whew! Finished about 2pm and the starter had only just begun to churn, not yet reaching high krausen (about 24hrs).

I left the brew out in the shed overnight in a sterilised fermenter as I wanted to drop the temp to 12C (that 30's thing). I got home at 8am this morning, ant the wort is 12C and the starter is at high krausen so all apples!! dropped the wort into another fermenter to airate and pitched the starter. So far so good, pending no major airbourne bugs have made it into the beer during transfer....

GI maybe you could give this a go, it may buy you some time to get your starter up to speed.

 

[Green Iguana]

I will just start the mash and hope the starter kicks up by tonight....thanks for your reply...

Cheers

 

[Green Iguana]

There is now some pressure in the airlock.....however it's looking grim..20 hrs and no signs of bubbles or krausen what so ever....

 

[Batz]

I you need to pitch it now do it

I am sure it will be OK

 

[pint of lager]

A couple more pointers when making a starter with expired White Labs yeast, for every month past the useby date, add another day for the starter to kick up.

Another sign of activity, is the wort cloudy? Dead yeast sinks quickly.

Keep some dried yeast on hand in case the starter smells off or isn't ready.