Beer Forum

Hi guys,
I'm kinda new to starters, but in the past have been able to pitch on yeast cakes, and/or gotten yeast from a local brewery. Anyway, I'm on starter number two and think I've been sub-optimal on both in the same way. I boil up the wort, then stick it in an ice bath. Then it gets too cold. Then I warm it up just a bit, then pitch the yeast. I wake up the next morning to find most of the yeast hanging at the bottom of the Erlenmeyer. It was a White Labs vial and never had a "dud" from them and am pretty sure they just went dormant due to the chilly environment. I shook this one this morning and got some outgassing so some of those guys are working on the wort. Hopefully that will wake 'em up.

Anyway, my question is how do you know when to pitch the yeast?

Perhaps a better question -- how do YOU accomplish this task in your system? I'm doing a 1 Liter starter.

Thanks

Your suppose to pitch at high krausening, usually 12 to 24 hours. A stir plate works great to keep the yeast in suspension. If I just want to get the yeast active 8 hours usually does it for me on a stir plate. For yeast growth I let it go for a few days and then make another starter get it active again for pitching.
A low gravity starter sometimes shows little activity. If you saw C02 when you shook it then it's active. Taping a Fermometer strip to the flask will help you know if your in the proper temperature range. You can dull the adhesive with something like baby powder so you can re use it for other starters.

Turns out I just needed to relax........... have a homebrew.

I definitely got some action when I shook it, and I did so a number of times, as I don't have stirplate (will make soon). After about 2pm today I found a small stream of bubbles constantly bubbling to the top.

And after pitching today, I basically got no lag (maybe 10 mins?) before the airlock started going on a 1.050 Red Ale.

Thanks again. Cheers

Biff wrote:...after pitching today, I basically got no lag (maybe 10 mins?) before the airlock started going on a 1.050 Red Ale.

Wow, that's pretty stunning. I find it hard to believe you had saturated the wort with co2 in 10 minutes, but nonetheless keep it up with those starters.

When they go cloudy you have active yeast in suspension. You may not see a big krausen at all...

Push E.