starter goes NUTS!!!

[zorak1066]

FOAM.jpg (137.25 KiB) Viewed 476 times

um... what do you do when after only 6 hrs you have nearly 1000 ml of foam filling your beaker and shooting out the top for a 1 liter starter???

[Beer-lord]

You get a 2L flask? I started with a 2L and went to a 3L for this and other reasons.
If you're nearing pitch times, you can remove it from the stirplate, chill and pitch as soon as you're ready I guess.

[zorak1066]

all I could afford at the time... and it was discounted.

I shut off the stir plate.. soaked paper towel with star san, wiped up the outside of the flask and the stir plate... removed the stir plate. replaced the foil on the flask with clean/sanitized foil.. and will just manually agitate every hour or so until tomorrow afternoon's brew day. this yeast is nuts!

I harvested the wlp400 from my last wit ( about 2 oz of yeast ) . they did a good job so I washed them and had them in the fridge for a couple weeks. made a 1 liter starter (3.7 oz dme ) and added some nutrient. in just under one hour on the plate it was already forming krausen on top.. one hour!!! I said to my wife 'oh crap. it's gonna go nuts' and put stir plate in a pan. woke up about 5 hrs later to this mess. omg this yeast is crazy active and the temp is only 62f.

[zorak1066]

began manually agitating the starter after about 6.5 hrs on the stir plate... after it blew out. it is now about 7 hours after that and wife reports the thing keeps almost making it to the top again when she goes to agitate it for me (every 30 mins). agitating knocks it back down... lather ..rinse.. repeat.

I never knew wlp400 was such a monster. keep in mind that my house is chilly.. at about 62-65f and wow. looks like the brew day is today and i'll just dump the whole thing in to a 3 gallon batch.

[Inkleg]

I shut off the stir plate.. soaked paper towel with star san, wiped up the outside of the flask and the stir plate... removed the stir plate. replaced the foil on the flask with clean/sanitized foil.. and will just manually agitate every hour or so until tomorrow afternoon's brew day.

I've had a blow out before and this was exactly what I did too. I then found a 3 liter flask on sale a got it.

looks like the brew day is today and i'll just dump the whole thing in to a 3 gallon batch.

In a 5 or 6 gallon carboy, right?

[mashani]

You sure you don't have some WLP530/3787 that was still alive in your flask LOL?

[zorak1066]

mashani.. nope .. just harvested wlp400. i was very surprised that it worked as well as it did in a wit fermenting at around 61-62f. guess i'm the 'yeast whisperer' or something because they just wouldnt stop. manually agitating kept knocking it back..only to grow again. it finally simmered down and ive got it in the fridge pending brew day... which should be in about 10 hrs. i'll use a 6 gallon bucket with a blow off airlock and do 3 gallons.

for gits and shiggles i'll probably toss in some crushed centrum vitamin (1/8th of a tab) and sacrifice some dead yeast as well... just to see if i can get myself another ultra agressive fermentation. gotta get my kicks somehow eh?

if this one goes well, i'll harvest gen 3 from it and give it one more ferment before returning it with honors to nature in the yard.


by the way... assuming healthy yeast and good sanitation, about how many generations of yeast can you get out of one tube before things start going bad? in theory can you rewash the same yeast infinitely if conditions are good and starters are done each time?

[Inkleg]

I've heard of people going up to 7+ generations. I haven't gone past 3 myself. Due to just being lazy, not wanting to risk contamination and also to do my part to help stimulate the economy by buying more yeast.