My first starter.......WTH?

Yeast & Fermentation
1

so I have been working on my first yeast starter
I though I would create a starter and then step it up one time
I did all of the following in a 1000 ml flask

the first start when perfect, far as I can tell
I did the following

650 ml water
1/2 cup DME
created wort and cooled
pitched smack pack
add 1/8 tsp yeast nutrient
stir plate for 12 hours fairly low setting
8 hours in fridge

the step up I took pretty much the same steps

again 650 ml water and 1/2 cup DME
decanted old wort leaving very little wort and the yeast
added slurry to new wort cooled
add 1/8 tsp yeast nutrient
put on stir plate fairly low setting

in 2 hours it popped the foam cap and I had a bunch of yeast all over the counter and lots of krausen

2 questions…

  1. what the hell happened?

  2. any guesses if there may still be enough yeast to pitch for my Tripel tonight??
    I know that is speculative, but how do I know if I have enough or not??

thanks for any input or smart ass comments :smiley:

2

I think you’re gonna need a bigger flask

3

All that happened is you had a ton of good yeast ready to go and they chewed through the starter super fast giving it the lift out of the top. What I would do is go buy a 2000 ml flask and make another starter in that. If you cant do that, dont worry about it. chill the starter, decant it and pitch like normal with a good dose of nutrient. Then give extra care to the fem temp on this batch.