Help! WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast Starter. Is it dead?

Ingredients
1

Hey guys, so I’m making my second starter. My first was a 2L with WLP001. When I made that one, the yeast activity was intense (I had to put a pot underneath because the krausen was overflowing). However, this time around I’m using WLP090 with 1L wort. It’s been 9 hours and there is like no activity (image linked below). My crimped aluminum foil appears to have no CO2 pressing against it. There is verrrrry light bubbling on the sides as you can see on the photo, but it seems more likely the result of a high stir setting (I’ve been using different settings every hour).

Now, I’ve heard that this particular yeast sometimes shows this kind of result but ends up successful when fermenting, but the lack of CO2 pushing against the aluminum is kind of bothering me. Based on the photo, should I still chuck it in the fermenter tomorrow or throw a hail mary and grab 2 packs of 001 tomorrow? Thanks!

http://imgur.com/d0yoPfa

2

Looks good to me, I’ve used wlp090 many times on the stir plate; it works super fast, has a very minimal krausen, and foloculates very fast as well, a 1 liter starter will likely ferment completely over night

Take a gravity reading if it is really bothering you

3

you wont see much of anything  for krausen -especially on stir plate.

if your wort has turned milky and cloudy ( as it appears), you’ve grown yeast cells. give it a taste…taste like beer or just sweet yeasty wort?

4

Yeah, especially with such a strong vortex, you won’t see much in the way of krausen. I would suggest that in the future, you run your stir bar as slowly as possible. I only spin fast enough to show a small dimple in the surface. With some yeasts at that speed you will see krausen form, especially WLP001. I have lately moved to the Shaken Not Stirred method.

One indicator, if you don’t want to check gravity, is to check pH. The yeast will drop the pH of the wort fairly quickly, indicating fermentation.

5

thanks for the responses guys! Looks like I underestimated the yeast, it’s now rapidly fermenting a double IPA as we speak.

Just for personal knowledge though, why would this starter not krausen and push pressure against the aluminum foil when my last starter did.

Last starter: 2L WLP001
This starter: 1L WLP090
I was actually anticipating more krausen this time around considering this is the “super” yeast

6

How old were the cultures when pitched?

7

I let the starter sit on a stirplate for about 20 hours and cold crashed it for about 4 and decanted about half of the liquid before pitching from refrigeration temp. I would’ve let the starter sit for a bit longer but I had a set window for when I’d have to brew.

It’s about 3 days now with 4 gallons of brew in a 6.5 gallon plastic carboy and it’s bubbling every 7-10 seconds or so still. With this strain I’m expecting it to stop any day now.

8

72 hrs it’s likely nearly fully attenuated. Just mopping up now over next 3-4 days and finishing. I have a cream ale at 48hrs at 66F and krausen falling. By tomorrow night it will be winding down significantly.