Fizzing starter

[jesseroberge]

Hi there, I made my first starter yesterday for an old Wyeast smackpack that was 9months old, I used the recomended 2 cups of water for 1/2 cup of DME... The mini beer looked very slow and dormant, but when I was about to pitch it 21 hours later, I shook it one last time to mix all the stuff together and BAM it fizzed like soda, I got some on the ground. !!!

First question , idid I loose some yeast ?

Second question, is my starter ok ? Is it normal to fizz like soda ?

 

[dawgmatic]

If it got on the ground after you shook it then you definitely lost some yeast. How much you lost exactly idk. At least you know that the yeast were still active. The fizz was just co2 escaping the solution all at once. You should probably give it a shake every now an then anyway to keep the yeast roused and to make sure you don't have another co2 buildup like earlier

Optimally, you would probably want to step up the starter more just to make sure you have enough yeast and push your brew day back a couple. But the real world isn't always optimal and I'm sure you could get away with pitching as is. Its really a matter of how confident you are in the live yeast count of what's left of your starter.