Shouldnt my starter have Krausen built up by now?

[daytonlawvol]

Made my Yeast Starter about 21 hours ago. 3 cups water, 1.5 cups extra light DME. I had tin foil around the top of the gallon jug. When I came home today it looks about the same as it did this morning. I put an airlock on top of the jug and there is airlock activity, about 3 times per minute, so there is activity going on. I dont think I have missed the activity overnight as there is no sludge around the sides of the jug where that would normally occur.

My instructions from local HBS said give it 72 hours before pitching, some here say why not do it at its highest activity...shouldnt that have occurred by now?

Its White Labs Irish Ale Yeast by the way.

 

[cfonnes]

Do you aerate?

I bet that if you do it will foam over.

 

[Hammy71]

Take the air lock off and put the sanitized foil back. Keep swirling it. You probably missed the krausen. With the small amount of wort compared to the yeast in a starter, it happens quickly.

 

[daytonlawvol]

Here is a little more info, you can literally hear fizzing coming from the jug, bubbling now about 6-7 times per minute, a little bit of bubbles here and there on the surface.

 

[daytonlawvol]

Im seeking to fix a stuck fermentation with this starter, should I go ahead a pitch now into my stuck beer?

 

[ajf]

3 cups water to 1.5 cups DME should give you a gravity of about 1.080. That's about twice what you want for a starter.
Also, at this time of year, it takes my starters (on a stir plate) at least 48 hours to really get going, and 72 hours is not uncommon. Yours will take longer because of the high gravity.

I'd leave it for the full 3 days before pitching.


Edit. With starters, it is not uncommon not to get any noticeable krausen. That is nothing to worry about.

-a.

 

[Calder]

I just replied to your other thread on this. I think the gravity is a lot higher than 1.080. I don't use DME so I'm not really sure of the weight of 1.5 cups. I estimated it at 12 ozs, which would give you a starter wort gravity of 1.170.

Wort gravity this high can kill the yeast due to osmotic pressure, and it's wat too high for the yeast to work. You should be around 1.030, or about 2.5 ozs in 3 cups of water.

Dilute what you have to about a gallon (check weight of 1.5 cups of DME; 12 ozs to a gallon will give you 1.030), and see if the yeast have survived.

 

[Revvy]

It doesn't matter one blip in your fermenter or your starter flask if the airlock bubbles or not (if you are using an airlock and not tinfoil if you are using tinfoil, you aren't getting bibbling anyway,) or if you see a krauzen. In fact starter fermentation are some of the fastest or slowest but most importantly, the most boring fermentations out there. Usually it's done withing a few hours of yeast pitch...usually overnight when we are sleeping, and the starter looks like nothing ever happened...except for the little band at the bottom. Or it can take awhile...but either way there's often no "activity" whatsoever....

I usually run my stirplate for the first 24 hours, then shut it down, if you are spinning your starter it is really hard to get a krausen to form anyway, since it's all spinning, and there's often a head of foam on it from the movement.


All that really matters is that creamy band o yeast at the bottom.

This is a chilled sample so it's flocculated, but even with an unchilled sample you should see a band of yeast at the bottom. Here's an unchilled version

Same thing, a band.

As it is I've only ever seen two or three krausens actually on my starter (one blew off a bunch of krausen and knocked the tinfoil off the flask,) and the evidence of one on the flask at the "waterline" once. But I've never not had a starter take off.

Look for the yeast at the bottom, don't worry what it looks like on top.

If you have yeast on the bottom....that's all you really need.

If it looks anything like that, your are ready to either feed it again, or use it.

 

[lumpher]

give it some air and swirl it around. it'll get busy when you add it into the wort later

 

[HoppedIPA]

What temp do you have it?