Beer Forum

Did you take a reading? If you are around 1.030 - 1.040 (for a light to regular ABV beer) you should be fine, like said above, it could just be some break. If you give it a swirl, I bet it would go back into solution pretty easily. I'd think that if it were undissolved DME it would stick to the flask. And if I'm following you correctly, you had boiled in another container and transferred into the flask right? I doubt that it would be undissolved DME.
Keep your chin up and tell your roomy to watch WTF he's doing. I'm sure he wouldn't mind having some homebrew around the apartment.
RDWHAHB (just drop the second "H")

EDIT: Oh, I just thought - undissolved DME is usually kinda clumpy and sticky, so if you have a thin layer, I even more doubt that that is the issue - prolly break material

Thanks for all the input.

I ditched the last starter wort and tried another just now. I boiled 1/4 pound dme in 1200 ml water for 20 minutes and it evaporated a lot more than i expected leaving me with about 500 ml of starter wort. I chilled it down below 80 and pitched my yeast, which still had not expanded, probably because of my jerkoff roommate. Should I chill that starter wort to the temp that I plan on fermenting or will it be fine at room temp? And am I supposed to swirl that baby every once in a while?

I'm curious of a worst case scenario: I come home from work tomorrow and there's no activity in my starter. Could I still pitch that and get decent results or should I try again?

Thanks again and take her easy.

you boiled off over 50% in 20 minutes?

relax...take your ridalin.

I will be fine.

you are just bringing the starter to a boil to sanitize not a crazy rolling boil like when you are brewing.

And as far as temps go.....let it ferment out at room temp....you are trying to increase cell count, not make beer at this point!!

Why are you adding the DME while the water is already hot? Why not add the DME to the flask and then the water to the flask. Swirl the flask to put the DME into solution and then heat on the stove. This way you don't have to deal with steam when adding the DME to the flask.

Now I suggest you just do the starter, not worried about the look, if it fails worst case you have nothing worse then what you have done thus-far.

If you are worried about a boil over. Just boil your dme/water in a sauce pan that is plenty big and then pour it into a sanitized flask. You big worry at that point is the krausen crawling out of the flask and on to your counter top. Make sure you have a big enough flask or use a foam control product ( I am too drunk to remember what I use and too lazy to get up and go look) to keep it from foaming over. Using a stir plate will also keep the blowoff from happening.

Wayne