Yeast starter help!

[RJBanks]

It appears I have made a huge mistake when I made my second starter yesterday. I have a stir plate. I boiled four cups of water and mixed in a cup of DME. After adding to my flask and cooling, I pitched in two vials of White Labs 001 and put on the stir plate. When I woke up this morning I had a huge mess on the counter.

I know realize that my mistake was only using a 1000ml flask. The first starter I had ever made didn't foam up any.

1. Is the foaming normal?

2. How long will it take to stop? Can I cold crash and decant some of the wort and put it back on the plate even though its only been 24 hours?

3. Will the yeast still be viable or has it been contaminated?

Thanks for any info.

 

[billl]

Life happens. As long as there was pressure pushing the foam out, it's pretty unlikely any contaminates were flowing the other way.

Foaming is normal. They sell drops to minimize it for bigger starters. Higher temps = more explosive fermentations.

The starter will probably run for a day or so before it falls. Don't mess with it, just let it run its course.

What are you trying to make with 2 vials?

 

[RJBanks]

Someone else told me to just put a drop of termcap in it. Work like a charm.

Making the Chocolate Covered Beavr Nutz from Midwest for a friend. Has an OG of 1.093. Wanted to better safe than sorry. Thats why I used two.

 

[flars]

A starter is just a beer without hops. The fermentation produces a krausen. You need to use a much larger container with sufficient head space. You don't need to use a flask. Doing your starter on a stir plate only requires some sort of container with a flat bottom.

This is what I use for large starters.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/new-yeast-starter-container-61619.html

 

[Upthewazzu]

Someone else told me to just put a drop of termcap in it. Work like a charm.

This, baby! Fermcap FTW.

 

[RJBanks]

A starter is just a beer without hops. The fermentation produces a krausen. You need to use a much larger container with sufficient head space. You don't need to use a flask. Doing your starter on a stir plate only requires some sort of container with a flat bottom.

This is what I use for large starters.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/new-yeast-starter-container-61619.html

Thanks for that. Will try something like this next time.

 

[cjgenever]

Two vials into a 1000ml flask?

That will barely even grow any yeast, and create one hell of a Krausen. Time to do some reading and learning my friend. You are preparing your starters incorrectly.

 

[cjgenever]

This will help.

http://www.yeastcalc.co/homebrew-calculators