First time building a starter - does this look OK ?

[foxbat]

You'll get used to being able to tell what the starter's doing just by looking at it.

They start off a dull dark brown.

Then they may or may not get a krausen and will look creamy. Even with a stir plate a vigorous yeast will produce a krausen.

Finally they finish up with no krausen and there'll be lots of little bits of yeast flying around. If it's a flocculent yeast then those little bits can actually be quite big bits.

 

[Galena]

With my starters I pitch and then turn on the stir plate, I leave it on the stir plate for 18 hours and then turn it off. It apparently benefits to then leave it for another 24 hours which apparently allows the yeast to build up a glycogen store as it prepares to hibernate as it were. At this point I either stick it in the fridge before decanting the wort into a mason jar for storage and pitching the rest, or if I am building it up I boil up more DME and add it to the Erlenmayer, switch the stir plate back on and start the process again.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

@cushyno @Galena @foxbat @Oneflewover
Really helpful thanks guys - I think I need a drink to steady my nerves ;-)
Cushyno best of luck with yours.

Anyone fancy a Bo Pils swap, once these are done?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

[...] before decanting the wort into a mason jar for storage

Just out of interest, what do you use the decanted stuff for?

 

[foxbat]

Just out of interest, what do you use the decanted stuff for?

Drinking!

Seriously though, just tasting to make sure it tastes of nothing bad. It should taste of bland, flavourless beer.

 

[Galena]

Just out of interest, what do you use the decanted stuff for?

I overbuild my starters by 100Bn cells, so lets say the calculator predicts you need 200Bn for a brew, then I will build 300Bn, the when it is finished I shake it up and if it is for example 1.5 litres then I decant 0.5 litre into a mason jar and store in the fridge for next time.
I also decant the wort off the yeast and taste it, then ditch it and pitch the remainder.

 

[531Man]

Wish me luck...
View attachment 47298

A mechanical engineer, asking for luck!?
Good thing we're only talking about brewing here.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Switched the stir plate off this morning.
I can already see clear liquid at the top and white sediment at the base - it's surprising how fast the yeast starts to come out of suspension :-)

 

[foxbat]

Switched the stir plate off this morning.
I can already see clear liquid at the top and white sediment at the base - it's surprising how fast the yeast starts to come out of suspension :-)

View attachment 47326

With a flocculent yeast it's seconds before it starts to fall which makes it a bit of a race when you're trying to pour some off into a jar for the next brew!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hmmm...
I switched off the stir-plate / air bubbler yesterday morning (about 20hrs after stepping up the volume).

It initially started to clear down, but then the activity took off again. I’m guessing anaerobic respiration starting up? Quite a bit more foam developed during the day.
By this morning the foam had collapsed back a bit, but no real signs of strong flocculation.

So I left it until lunchtime and then transferred it to the fridge in the hope that it will clear down overnight as I was rather hoping to brew tomorrow!

Is this typical? Ta :-)

 

[foxbat]

Hmmm...
I switched off the stir-plate / air bubbler yesterday morning (about 20hrs after stepping up the volume).

It initially started to clear down, but then the activity took off again. I’m guessing anaerobic respiration starting up? Quite a bit more foam developed during the day.
By this morning the foam had collapsed back a bit, but no real signs of strong flocculation.

So I left it until lunchtime and then transferred it to the fridge in the hope that it will clear down overnight as I was rather hoping to brew tomorrow!

Is this typical? Ta :-)

I always leave mine on the stir plate until it's fully fermented out which only takes a couple of days. It's obvious from the colour, yeast particles whirling around and total lack of krausen when that's happened.

If there's still sugars left to consume then the yeast won't want to flocculate but chilling them to sleep will certainly help. I like to work with the yeast rather than against it if I can.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I always leave mine on the stir plate until it's fully fermented out which only takes a couple of days.

A couple of days would have been great! This one has been going since Friday though, and I would really rather like to get brewing

Maybe I should just pitch with S-04 instead ...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

If it’s still not settled out by tomorrow afternoon then I might have to go for plan B and just decant half of it and shake what’s left up with the sediment... I was hoping to not have to pitch too much of the liquid, in case it throws out the flavour and SG of the main brew - but the concensus seems to be that the starter should taste pretty neutral.