Yeast starter is dark brown?

[daytondave]

I made a starter about 12 hours ago with White Labs (530) Abby Ale Yeast and I am a bit concerned. The color is dark brown. I have never seen a started of this color/dark before. I'm hoping that when I wake up in the morning it has lightened and I can see the flocculating yeast, but I am having my doubts. Anyone else experience this?

 

[Brett Goldstein]

I did a starter with 530 two weeks ago, and it definitely wasn’t dark brown.

 

[Andre3000]

Can you post a picture? Was it dark like that before you pitched the starter wort? I've had mine look dark-ish before they flocc out. Also I've had dark layers in the flocc'd yeast.

 

[daytondave]

Picture is attached. It looks darker than the picture shows.

 

[flars]

Picture is attached. It looks darker than the picture shows.

Doesn't look overly dark to me even if the picture shows it lighter than it is. I've had starters start out darker with worts made from some brands of light DME versus pilsen DME.

 

[day_trippr]

That's 12 hours in?
I dunno, that looks like raw wort to me and that'd mean the yeast didn't take off...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's not _that_ dark, but I'd trust your instinct - individual yeast strains won't affect the colour of the starter too much, so if you use the same DME or whatever and the colour comes out different, then something's probably wrong. If my eyes sensed something wrong then the first thing I would do is use my nose. Have a sniff, if it smells wrong then bin it.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd start with a hydro check...

Cheers!

 

[daytondave]

Update, after more than 24 hours I was about to give up on it but I decided to keep going and boy did it t take off. I guess it pays to be patient.

 

[flugelizor]

Was it purchased, or coming out of storage?
I have had trouble with that yeast dying off in storage.

If purchased, curious what was the date? 24 hours is a long time for that little starter.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Looks normal to me...

 

[day_trippr]

So that pic was taken 24 hours before the yeast actually got going.
By comparison, I almost always start cold-crashing my 2 starters after 18 hours on the stir plate.
I'd say that's not a great sign...

Cheers!

 

[tcmccormick]

I made a starter about 12 hours ago with White Labs (530) Abby Ale Yeast and I am a bit concerned. The color is dark brown. I have never seen a started of this color/dark before. I'm hoping that when I wake up in the morning it has lightened and I can see the flocculating yeast, but I am having my doubts. Anyone else experience this?

Since this post is similar to my issue I wondered if anyone else has experienced this. I’m in TN and I ordered (2) WLP001 with one ice pack from MoreBeer. It shipped from CA, through AZ in early Sept. Took 4 days then arrived while out of town so sit on front porch another day. I actually had a WLP001 dated July 4, 2018 and these new ones I received was Aug 4, 2018. When I compared to the yeast I had they were super dark. The picture attached shows the stark contrast. I haven’t found anything yet that says they are bad, but I’m not comfortable pitching these even with a starter, which I always do. Has anyone experienced this and would you use it?

 

[homebrewer_99]

Last year I had at least 5 that were that dark and 3 never took off.

I told the lady at the brew shop and she replaced them.

I was at the shop 2 weeks ago and asked if she had any yeast that was expired. She got out about 10 or so and I took 5 of them. Then asked how much? She said take them...I'm only going to throw them away. Of course, I was making other purchases so it wasn't a complete walk in, beg and leave situation.

She said WL doesn't want dealers to send them back like they did with the vials. I guess they were spending too much in postage for bad/expired yeast.

 

[dgbeer]

Since this post is similar to my issue I wondered if anyone else has experienced this. I’m in TN and I ordered (2) WLP001 with one ice pack from MoreBeer. It shipped from CA, through AZ in early Sept. Took 4 days then arrived while out of town so sit on front porch another day. I actually had a WLP001 dated July 4, 2018 and these new ones I received was Aug 4, 2018. When I compared to the yeast I had they were super dark. The picture attached shows the stark contrast. I haven’t found anything yet that says they are bad, but I’m not comfortable pitching these even with a starter, which I always do. Has anyone experienced this and would you use it?

I just pitched a Pure Pitch of WLP001 into a starter 24 hrs ago and the pitch looked just like that...Super dark. It hasn’t taken off yet. Did you have any luck with yours that were dark or should I trash it

 

[Jag75]

I just pitched a Pure Pitch of WLP001 into a starter 24 hrs ago and the pitch looked just like that...Super dark. It hasn’t taken off yet. Did you have any luck with yours that were dark or should I trash it

This is quite interesting. I and another member used the 400 a few weeks ago and it seemed darker to me . I also did 001 and it was lighter. I use proper starter so I'm thinking it may have been that .