[Indy574]

I performed the shaken not stirred method for the second time both which showed no krausen?  Any suggestions?

[klickitat jim]

No krausen in the main beer? Or in the starter?

I don't wait long enough to "see" krausen. At about hrs in, end of brew day, I gently oscillate the starter just to verify there is activity. It will show as a cloudy starter that foams much easier than the gentle movement should produce if it were not active. I always see activity. Then I pitch the whole thing.

FYI, I oxygenate rather than shake-aerate. I'm lazy that way.

[Indy574]

This is in the starter.  Well I may have poured a good one down the drain then??  If I give it a swirl it will foam up quickly and then dissipate.

[Stevie]

How fresh was your yeast?

[Indy574]

Jan 10, 2018. WYeast 1450

[Stevie]

That’s a bit on the older side in my experience.. Anything older than 6 weeks I make a starter ahead of time, crash, decant, and pitch into my shaken starter. Normally I have activity within 12 hours. I’m sure your starter will take off, just going to take a bit longer. I normally make my shaken starters first thing morning of and pitch before bed.

[klickitat jim]

This is in the starter.  Well I may have poured a good one down the drain then??  If I give it a swirl it will foam up quickly and then dissipate.

Sounds normal

[Stevie]

This is in the starter.  Well I may have poured a good one down the drain then??  If I give it a swirl it will foam up quickly and then dissipate.

Sounds normal

Yeah, it’s making gas for sure. Do you use fermcap?

[Indy574]

No I didn’t, I have some yeast nutrient but forgot to throw it in at the time.

[ynotbrusum]

I don't know what to say about your results....Sunday I ran the chilled first liter of an Ordinary English Bitter into a one gallon jug, dumped in the Omega British Ale yeast into the chilled liter of wort and shook the snot out of it.  It was half inch of krausen in about 2-3 hours; dumped it in to the full batch in the fermenter and a few hours later, I had activity (bubbles in the blow off - I can't confirm anything else visually, as it is in a stainless fermenter).

The manufacture date on the yeast package was 12-14-17.  It was stored cold at the LHBS who sold it to me as old yeast last month (discounted price to get rid of it after 60 days).  I kept it refrigerated until Sunday morning.  Left it at room temperature until I pitched it.

[mchrispen]

Not yet mentioned: If you have a pH meter, check the pH at the beginning of the starter ferment. It should be somewhere north of 4.8-5.0. If the yeast if viable and propagating, the pH will drop quite a bit, as low as 4.2 or so, before showing significant krausen.

[Indy574]

I pitched it and it started bubbling in the fermenter within 4 hours. I’m usually paranoid on brew days.

[klickitat jim]

Paranoia is the number one cause of off flavors

[Indy574]

Paranoia is the number one cause of off flavors

I agree with that one.

[Richard]

There is a new way to make starters that is better than SNS. I'll be posting about it in a couple of days.