Yeast Starter - Wyeast 1469

[timtoos]

Hi all,

This will be my third gen from the original packet.

The last brew I did was in October last year (2021). I did a good top crop during active fermentation, 11/10/21, collecting a full 500ml sample jar. I then placed in the fridge.

So on Thursday (26/5/22) I decided to make a 2L starter. Aiming for a low OG I added 175g DME and boiled before cooling to a safe temperature. Anyway the starter did nothing at all, the colour was just like wort but yesterday (28/5/22) you could see it changing colour and getting a slight head of foam on the starter. It took 2 days to reach this state. Today it now looks like a proper full starter.

I intend to save 500ml back to store and using the remaining for a 23L Landlord clone brew.

I remember the last starter I made with this top cropped yeast taking a few days to get going.

Is this normal? What is the maximum date for yeast store in the fridge when using a starter? 12 months or even longer? I presume my starter was probably on the large side for an initial starter with yeast this age? I do remember and looking at my notes, the last time I used this yeast it took ages and some rousing to get the beer to ferment to expected FG.

 

[foxbat]

7 months isn't too bad though like you say it might have been better to bring it back in two stages. With my starters it's perfectly normal to wait a day for a krausen to appear and the colour change to happen.

Now you are where you are so what I'd do is let it ferment out, separate off your 500ml then chill the remainder for a few days. Since you've done this before you'll know what a good amount of healthy yeast looks like so look for that and also taste some of the "beer" on top to make sure it's not sour. My guess is that you'll be fine.