slow yeast question

[william mc]

I have a white labs 500 is slow in the starter, plenty of airlock activity but definitly no head at all
my question is shuold i go ahead and pitch what would you do?
also my kettle element has packed up anyone know a good supplier?

[denimglen]

Got a stir plate? If not, make one, really easy and increases the amount of yeast produced a lot.

What size starter? How old was the yeast? How does it smell - like beer or sour/infected?

Give it a swirl - does a lot of CO2 come out of solution?

You don't need, and shouldn't, use an airlock on a starter. I piece of sanitised foil covering the top of the vessel will stop the nasties getting in but provide better gas exchange, CO2 out but will let O2 in. Periodically swirling or shaking the starter will also let in more O2 giving more yeast growth.

If I was you I would wait until it fully ferments out, crash cool for 24 - 48 hours, then tip the beer and pitch the sediment and hope for the best. Keep a sachet of T-58 handy (WLP500 is the belgian strain if I remember correctly?).

[Dan]

How long has it been going for? sometimes it takes a couple of days for foaming.
Yesterday I pitched a 1600ml starter of wyeast 3944 wit yeast, on a stirplate, I dont have airlock, I use tinfoil on a flask, so cant tell if it was working, there was no head at all, was made 16 hours prior from a fresh smack pack.
This morning it was blowing out the airlock in the fermentor even though there is 15cm of headspace.

Go ahead with the pitch if it tastes clean! that 3944 looked tame in the starter but it is the first time ive had yeast come out the airlock at 23 litres on a 35 litre fermentor.

On that note I have some consolation in forgetting I had my aerator on for an hour yesterday and losing 4 litres of wort foam on the carpet, yeast is coming out the airlock now at 23 litres if it was still at the original 27 litres it would be coming out the door, mind you from the aerator incident it was nearly coming out the door and half a metre high, so either way there would have been some carpet cleaning.

My starter looked dead but its a monster!