Well, I made a 2 liter starter yesterday at noon for my Belgian Abbey Yeast. Put it on the stir plate everything was going well. Went to bed and woke up to a gooey doughy mess spilling over my beaker.
Making a 5 gallon batch or Belgian Blonde. Is there enough yeast left?
I’d do my best to clean it up and close it off with starsan from a spray bottle around the stopper. I’d also go for it with your pitch as well for a 5 gallon batch, I bet you’ll be OK. Try a little fermcap in your starter next time. I’ve had great luck with it keeping starters in the flask when there’s not much headspace to work with.
Thanks, I did use a drop of fermcap, or AIH’s equivalent. It spelled just like bread dough. Crazy, I have done a few starters and never had this happen
What is a little fermcap for a starter. I also made a 2.5 liter starter of WLP001 and had massive loss, have not used fermcap before, but will be picking some up along with yeast for my next batch. Thanks for any thoughts.
how much headspace are you giving your starters? if your using flask and filling it all the way up, even if you don’t get blowoff you’re doing your yeast a disservice because the low volume to surface ratio means that not a lot of o2 is dissolving.
I like a .5 gallon mason jar for 1 liter and a 1 gallon jug for 2 liters. Course, I just shake my starters when I notice them (5-10 times a day) rather than a stir plate so I don’t have to worry about bottom geometry.
This was a 1 gal jar, no stir plate. Pitched 1 vial WLP 001 to 1 L, crashed after 3 days, decanted, added 1.5 L and woke up with dough all over bottle and counter. SWMBO not happy and neither was I. Left me with less yeast sediment at bottom of bottle than before I re-pitched :-[
that’s a bummer for sure.
Planning on same effort s for upcoming IPA, another link. How much fermcap should I add to starter and when to avoid this? Have not used fermcap before.
3-4 good drops has always worked for me in a 2 liter starter. I would not advise doubling that for “good measure”. The stuff works and it doesn’t take much.
I had the same thing happen with WL810 even with fermcap when my stirplate threw the bar overnight. I would use it and not worry about it. This is one reason I always try to overshoot my approximate number when doing starters. Also, because there is always a bit left in my flask and jars I keep it in.
I do 4L starters in a 5L flask all the time and using 4 drops of fermcap, and now that I have my stir plate dialed in perfectly, it works. If you don’t get much of a vortex on your plate you can still get a krausen like that, the vortex will suck it down. Before I had my stirplate fixed, I wouldn’t get a big vortex in 4L and had issues like these even when I doubled the fermcap amount.
If you aren’t getting a strong vortex, try shimming under your flask with something small and building it up. That fixed my problem.
Ok, last question…I didn’t get to brew because I got sick. My starter has been sitting in the fridge for a week…is that ok ?
In my opinion, As long as it is cold and sanitary you’ll be fine.
I’d think you’re fine. All things sanitary.