Making a Starter: Sanity Check

[robertus]

Okay, first time using the Bonus Yeast from the "make an extra-big starter, save some" method. Made a batch with WLP005 about 2 months ago, saved a mason jar full of yeasty goodness. Took the jar out of the fridge this evening, was greeted thusly:

So far, so good.

Put it in a bowl of warmish water to bring it up to room temperature, and it sprung back to life. I decanted a bit, since the mason jar was full and I didn't want trouble. I got a healthy pop-fizz when I opened the jar. After I put the kid to bed, it looked like this:

Is this sort of behavior normal out of one of these?

I went ahead and pitched it into the starter anyway, because hey, what's the worst that could happen? I figure we're good to go and that liquid yeast always does this (I mean, it's basically a test tube of really lousy beer), just that those vials are smaller. Also figured that it can't hurt to ask.

 

[KepowOb]

Should work fine, I would think. Next time decant the liquid from the top first though. I could be wrong, but if fermentation is active again you probably dumped some yeast when you decanted... But I still think it'll work fine.

 

[duboman]

Should be fine but if it started fermenting again once it warmed up it wasn't fully fermented out before you crashed it

BTW, it's best to decant while it's cold to prevent decanting yeast. Also, there really is no need to warm the yeast prior to pitching, simply decant and pitch


Sent from the Commune

 

[aiptasia]

The worst that can happen is a sluggish fermentation, which means you'd need to re-pitch with fresh yeast. Be sure to oxygenate your wort and add yeast nutrient & energizer prior to pitching and you should be fine.

 

[Trox]

If I read your post correctly you just put that bit of yeast into a new starter, if so it should work great; if I read it incorrectly you will still be fine. I've started doing the same thing, and will agree that it is best to decant while it is still cold so that the yeast is still compressed against the bottom.

 

[robertus]

If I read your post correctly you just put that bit of yeast into a new starter, if so it should work great;

Yep, that's correct. I pitched this into a starter. Haven't looked in on it yet, but it should be going pretty good by now.

Next time, I won't sweat the warming up and I'll decant while it's cold. Easy peasy.

Thanks for the sanity check, folks.