Pitched my first starter and I have a some questions

[garcara]

Hello,

I made a starter for my Oatmeal Stout using 1968 London ESB Ale. I forget the exact size, but I think it was 1.3 Liters. I made my wort with DME (boiling for 15 minutes), cooled it down to about 68 degrees and threw the yeast in. I put foil on the top and stuck it on my stir-plate. About 20 hours later everything looked good and I stuck it in the fridge to crash it. The next day I pulled it out and decant it. The yeast and whatever else on the bottom seemed almost solid. I left some liquid and swirled it around good to get it mixed up and put it in 68 degrees again (my pitching temp).

I went ahead with my brew day and when I went to pitch the yeast it looked like maybe some of the stuff in the bottom of the flask was kind of chunky. Is that normal? This morning there wasn't any activity happening from the fermenter, but I am using a blow-off tube. I am not getting worried yet, but I just want to verify I didn't mess anything up.

Thanks.

 

[MalFet]

Chunking is normal. It's just the yeast globbing together. Swirl it around a bit to get a good consistency. I would keep it on the plate longer than 20 hours, but at worst all you did was cut off the tail end of the population growth. I'm sure your numbers were fine.

How long ago did you pitch? Anything less than 24 hours means you're not seeing anything unusual yet.

 

[garcara]

Yea, it was less than 24 hours ago, but usually I see activity the next morning. I am not concerned, just wanted some validation of my process. Thanks a lot. I did do as much swirling through-out the day as I could remember to do and shook it up really good after adding it to my fermentation container.

 

[garcara]

Also, while I don't consider his word law, Jamil Z has written that he thinks all the yeasty magic happens in the first 12-18 hours. I have no issue with running it on the stir-plate longer next time and I will try it out for sure.

 

[MalFet]

Also, while I don't consider his word law, Jamil Z has written that he thinks all the yeasty magic happens in the first 12-18 hours. I have no issue with running it on the stir-plate longer next time and I will try it out for sure.

In Jamil and Chris White's book Yeast, he suggests a standard protocol of 48h on the plate and 48h cold crash. Typically, growth should happen in 12-18 hours with proper access to oxygen (i.e., a stir plate), but sub-conventional oxygenation or low viability cultures can make it take longer.

Additionally, once the yeast have finished reproducing, extra time allows them to build up glycogen reserves (and, in the fridge, trehalose reserves), which provide them better viability and resistance to shock at pitching time.

20h is probably fine, but if you don't have the means to check (i.e., a hemacytometer) 48h is the convention for good reason.

 

[garcara]

Thank you so much for the information and great explanation. I've been meaning to pick that book up and now I feel even more driven to do it.

 

[garcara]

Well, it's official, I am well concerned, just got home from work and I am not seeing any action. I am concerned my blow-off tube (which going into a 1" hole in my lid) might not be tight so the air is escaping around the tube instead of through it? I am going to try and tighten it up and see what happens.

 

[garcara]

False alarm, she's going steady already.. Just didn't have my tube in tight.. should be fine though.