How long to let a starter cook?

[johnnyb]

I’ve just done the same process again today as described in my last post except the yeast was dated late March and it is WY1007 instead of WY1450. I pitched at 3:30 EST and it seems to be at high krausen already at 9:30.

[system]

@johnnyb

It continued to actively ferment for several more hours but no real krausen ever formed. At hour 10 I noticed a nice white layer of yeast start to form at the bottom of the flask. At hour 11 I decided to crash assuming it had progressed beyond the height of activity. Funny thing is the next morning in the fridge there was a “krausen like” formation on top of about an 1/8" covering 100% of the surface. When I put it in the fridge the top just had a wispy yeast layer on it.

It ended up forming a layer of yeast between 1/8" to 1/4" on the bottom of the flask. I decanted, warmed, and pitched a couple of days later and had one of the quickest blast offs that I’ve experienced. (Only have about 50 batches of experience so far, but still…) Everything about the fermentation seems to be very healthy so far.

From all the clues, I collected a good quantity of very healthy yeast. Just for some reason it didn’t form a krausen. I watched it fairly closely, at least every 30 minutes putting an eyeball on it.

The only reason I want to maintain the practice of crashing is due to being nervous about timing it to be able to pitch into wort at high krausen. Since the timing of when it might be ready can vary, unless it makes a huge difference in performance, I would rather have it ready a few days ahead of time. Is that bad?

What strain did you pitch?

[johnnyb]

WY1450

[system]

I have not used that strain since it was called Brewtek CL-50.  From what I can ascertain, CL-50 was acquired from North Coast Brewing (Red Seal Ale).  Mark Reudrich acquired it from U.C. Davis.  It’s apparently one of the older U.C. Davis cultures, but I have yet to encounter in my journey through the U.C. Davis culture collections.  I have a British culture that I acquired from U.C. Davis that I need to revisit in the fall.  I used it to make a nice all-Cluster IPA.

[Vitaly]

Hi everybody! I usually use dry Fermentis yeast. Recently I began to make starter. I put 10 gr per 2 L, wait for 24 hours but can’t get high krausen. Can you help me what I did wrong?

[klickitat_jim]

@Vitaly

Hi everybody! I usually use dry Fermentis yeast. Recently I began to make starter. I put 10 gr per 2 L, wait for 24 hours but can’t get high krausen. Can you help me what I did wrong?

What size batches do you brew? For 20L of wort, a packet of rehydrated dry yeast ought to be enough. I would skip the starter.

[johnnyb]

I’m really starting to believe in the no stir plate pure oxygen starter method. Even though I’m still crashing at high krausen (rather than pitching at high krausen as recommended) and decanting before pitching, this is my second attempt using the method and both took off faster than my stir-plate starters. Both smelled good too.

4.5 hours since pitching for this one (WY1007) and I already have the first signs of take off.