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Author Topic: yeast starter volcano  (Read 2612 times)

Offline krustybb

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yeast starter volcano
« on: February 20, 2012, 09:41:10 pm »
Okay I made a yeast starter with WL028. Today I decanted and added another batch of wort to step it up. It has gone crazy and is pouring out from under the foil. I don't really have a bigger container to move it into. What do you guys think. Should I just leave it. My foil was soaked in star san and my sanitation overall was great. Should I switch foil for a newly soaked one once it finishes and dies down. I am brewing tomorrow night and was going to decant the majority off after an afternoon in the fridge.

Offline krustybb

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2012, 09:46:33 pm »
I also seem to be having some yeast coming out but I am assuming it will not be much loss compared to the overall population. Is that not correct?

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2012, 11:19:48 pm »
Do you have any fermcap?  If you do, use it.

You can always split it into two containers if you don't have one that is large enough.

It will probably be fine, but it will be a lot less messy if you do something about it.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline krustybb

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2012, 06:36:24 am »
Well I had to let it go. This morning I cleaned it up with star san and replaced the foil with a new one. I lost a lot of yeast. So frustrating. This had been a great starter all the way through. I should have enough yeast to pitch still but very frustrating.

Offline phillamb168

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2012, 07:11:59 am »
What size erlenmeyer did you use? I've had this happen a couple times since I started using a stirplate (started covering the stirplate with saran wrap) but the overflow is no biggie... I'd say RDWHAHB :-)
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Offline krustybb

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2012, 07:34:58 am »
I use a half gallon growler. The first two steps did not have a super high krausen but the third one went crazy. It seems like there is easily more yeast on the outside of the bottle than was in the original White labs vial. This is going into a massive beer. Otherwise I would not worry about it. I put it in the fridge. I will see how much settles to the bottom and then decide if I want to add another addition of wort to get back what I lost.

Offline richardt

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Re: yeast starter volcano
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2012, 07:40:10 am »
FermCap-S is the way to go.
It helps prevent the boil-overs when you're sanitizing the starter wort and it helps keep the krausen down thereby increasing your yield (even in an erlenmeyer flask).