I made a starter for some WLP029 Kolsch. I don’t have a stir plate, so I use the agitation method in a 4" dia. 2 liter container and 1 liter of wort boiled with DME. The starter passed the 48 hour mark in the middle of the night. When I woke up and went to shake it, I found that it had completely settled out, as in the wort is crystal clear, and everything’s settled on the bottom. all my other starters required a day or two in the fridge to look like that. That’s why I ask if this is indicative of a problem.
Also, it seems like there is not as much yeast as their should be. It’s a 4" dia. container, and I have maybe a 1/4 inch of cream at the bottom.
Starters can ferment out real quickly, with a stir plate sometimes within 7-8 hours. 48 hours that thing should be completely done. Despite what others have said, I had really good luck with 029 floccuating on my recent kolsch (maybe White Labs improved the strain?). You have more yeast than you started with. However, I would play around on yeastcalc.com and make sure you have enough…kolsch’s need a decent slug of yeast, esp if you are fermenting at 50*.
Thanks. Actually, I am making a Maibock. I have no way to lager right now, the Wife won’t relinquish control of the Garage fridge so I can manipulate the thermo. Denny suggested using 1007, as that is a warmer yeast, but I could not find it locally, so I went with the 029, as it says it’s range is 60 -66 degrees, and I can get that all year long in my basement.
