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I know what krausen is - my point is this: wouldn't you need to pitch yeast in order for fermentation to start, thus producing krausen?
So you pitch the yeast after you've pitched the yeast?!?!?! That's sounding a lot like some kind of weird Back To The Future time travel paradox thing.....
Perhaps I'll go do the required reading and get back to this topic. I'm just in the process of making up a 6-way starter for a pack of Wyeast British Ale II.
I was going to boil up 200g LDME into 2L water - I have some 345ml stubbies (james squire bottles) that should fit that amount nicely (2L six ways gives 333.33 ml of yeast starter....) or do you think that's pushing it?
Life is like a box of chocolates.... sometimes you get a hard one!
OK so I think I get it now... please tell me if I'm getting it right.
I'm ok with the process of making the 6-way starter....
...So when I want to actually make a brew, I have to take one of my stubbies of Yeasty-Beer, make a starter (100g LDME in 1L water) and pour in the said stubby. I then put it in my sanitised Demi (thats what I'm using....), wait for it to krausen (hopefully about 24 hours later, and then pitch this into my just boiled wort (cooled to appropriate pitching temp, in this case somewhere between 21-24C).
Does that sound right....?
That means being mightily organised.....
Life is like a box of chocolates.... sometimes you get a hard one!
That's why I don't bother pitching at high krausen. I just pitch the slurry, which works pretty much as well, and is much easier because you can make the starter a few days in advance, wait for it to ferment out completely, pop in the fridge, then pitch at your leisure.
That depends on the viability of the yeast. How long have you had it, and how was it stored? Dry yeasts often kick off better because they're more resilient and therefore maintain their viability for longer and through more adverse conditions.
Some of the yeasts that i revive after about 6 months in the fridge to tend to take a little while to get going. after about 3 days there's usually some form of krausen on the top and a build up of pressure.. After about 4-5 days i pitch..
Its a little tricky sometimes getting the timing right so the yeast is ready when you brew.
I freely admit that I was Very Very Drunk....
"They speak of my drinking, but never consider my thirst."
G'day Zuma,
In general, liquid yeasts are slower at taking off compared to pre-packaged dry yeast. The yeast needs to go through a conditioning / adaptive phase before they launch into the attenuative / fermentation phase. This is a generalisation however, since I've had liquid yeast slurry take off within minutes of adding fresh starter wort.
Age is a significant factor in yeast starters - for example, I have a discount priced whitelabs tube of english ale yeast that has a best before date of November 2007 in a flask at the moment. I had no action for 3 days and now I have krausen and a layer of fresh off-white yeast on the floor of the flask. I've had some lager strains (eg Wyeast 2000) take up to 5 days to kick into gear in a starter - the final product has been fine and clean to taste.
Hang on to your starter and give it a regular swirl to ensure that yeast is well suspended in the nutrient wort - if you have a cloudy wort, it's generally a good early sign that yeast cells are multiplying. You just need to be patient...and make sure you keep the vulnerable starter out of harms way - eg, in a cool dark spot and away from airborne contaminants. I did my first starter years ago in the kitchen and left the flask alongside the fruit bowl - you should have seen the wild yeast / bacteria starter I made! More Brett than you could poke a belgian yeast stick at!!
Warra - you are making yeast, not beer. below 15C will result in much slower growth.
A starter should be in the 24-26 range, hell, even 30 is good for the yeasts sex life. As long as you pour off the resulting beer. I generally let the water/LDME mix cool to tap water temp by sitting it in a sink of water. It then goes onto a stir plate which seems to keep it around 24-26 when in use.
I made a starter described at the beginning of this thread with a Wyeast 3638 i split the starter up evenly into 6 stubbies. Now once in the fridge for the last few days they have about 10mm of yeast at the bottom of each stubbie is this enough to create another started before pitching into my wort?
Rob C wrote:I made a starter described at the beginning of this thread with a Wyeast 3638 i split the starter up evenly into 6 stubbies. Now once in the fridge for the last few days they have about 10mm of yeast at the bottom of each stubbie is this enough to create another started before pitching into my wort?
You could probably pitch that directly into a brew and there'd be enough yeast, at least for the next few months (before the viability of that yeast drops significantly).
I pitched just the sediment to a Hefe on saturday and it took about 24hours to fully get going. Now its going great. I think next time ill plan a few days ahead and make a starter.
rwh wrote:9. Store the stubbies in the back of your refrigerator until you need to use them, then create a starter (go to step 2), and add this to your brew at high krausen, or about 24 hours.
One question. How long will the stubbies of yeast last stored like this in the fridge? (@ about 3-4c i guess)
