I just made a yeast starter and about an hour into it, started stirring the bottle around. All of a sudden it started foaming up bad and had a blow off. Should I just dump this starter and get new yeast? or do you think this starter is still good. As soon as it started to foam over I removed the foam stopper and let it over flow into my sink then sanitized my foam stopper again and put it back on my flask. any advice thanks
yeast starter problem
- Thread starter Greg79
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
What size bottle are you using? Do you mean a flask? Are you using a stir plate or just shaking it? What yeast? Was it a vial, smack pack or dry yeast packet? Sounds like your starter was too big for your bottle/flask. I have had starters that were 'overly happy' and started foaming over, but they tend to stop the moment I shut off the stir plate.
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I dont have a stir plate its a 1000ml batch with the smaller bottle from northern brewer i believe a 2000ml bottle. also was using american ale yeast from wyeast smack pack. It stopped foaming over as soon as i stopped shaking it
BansheeRider
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What happened to you is normal. Foaming means that the yeast is fermenting. Because you don't have a stir plate the wort doesn't off gas enough, hence why it foams over when you shake. Also your starter may be too big for your flask. I would just let it go for 24 hours then cold crash over night. I would also keep shaking it but gently, and make sure you do it over your sink. It's important to keep the yeast in suspension until you cold crash.
I agree with banshee... It sounds like it is fermenting rather than propagating. That usually happens if the starter wort was above 1.040 OG. I would cold crash it for 2 days and decant the liquid. Make a smaller gravity starter and try it again.
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