My yeast starter question?

Hello I did a 2L yeast starter in my 5L flask an I crash cold it in my fermentation refrigerator but I had to decant it an pour the yeast into my 2L flask so I can cold crash it in my main refrigerator so I can used my refrigerator to ferment the main batch. So what I am asking is the starter that I have in the refrigerator right now look normal? https://i.imgur.com/k3rCm26.jpg

Your starter looks normal but it looks like a good krausen is still present. If this is krausen and not just foam from the pour the starter is still fermenting.

See i pour it from my 5L flask into the 2L flask i had to really shake it up to get the yeast off the bottom of my 5L flask i think that were the foam is from

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Suspected that but had to check.

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Why are you even refrigerating your starter? I do my best to time it out at high krausen, or there abouts, to pitch into a fresh batch of wort… You have way too much energy… relax… :sunglasses:… We need to have one of these little faces swigging on a brew! Sneezles61

What are you making that you need that much starter is my question? I don’t bother to cold crash my starters either but I’m only pitching 800 ml max

Refrigeration is fine if your saving it for later. But a starter should be timed to pitch when it’s active IMO. If you do let it settle it will be slurry so I would decant off the liquid and calculate your pitch amount using the slurry calculaer

800ml of starter is confusing. How much of that is wort. You would need to let it settle out to get an idea. 100ml of slurry is equal to a pack of wyeast. So 200 ml would be double etc. That’s the thing with pitch count and starter it all depends on the gravity of the starter wort.

800ml after I put a portion in a mason jar for next time. I do you a pitching calculator and I adjust for the OG of what I intend to brew but unless I’m purposely under pitching I don’t worry about anything else. The truth is I have no idea cell counts at this point because I made a starter save a portion and repeated for most of what I have

If you’re saving it in the fridge it will separate and you can figure the slurry is about 100 billion cells/100ml of slurry according to online calculators I’ve read.

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That is helpful, TY

What sneezles and squeegee are referring to is an article that Denny posted a couple years ago based on some research that a yeast guru did( don’t remember the yeast guys name). It’s about pitching an actively fermenting starter at the high krausen stage. Even though you may be underpitching, based on a Mr. Malty calculation, the yeast is highly active and takes right off without a significant lag period.
So, what I (and I suspect quite a few others) do now, is make my starter no more than 24-36 hours before brewing and pitch the whole thing at high krausen. If I’m doing a lager and need a higher initial count, I’ll start it several days before that, and step it up, but my pitch is still in the active phase.

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Yes, highly active, and a krausen in fermenter reappears so fast this way.

Now I await Hardbrewer to give us a bigger peep into his brewery…:no_mouth: Sneezles61

Most simple and reliable method IMO.

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