Malt extract as a starter for all grain

[molehill]

I am trying a natural malt extract as a starter for an all-grain English ale brew. The starter is from a slant of WLP007 and being stepped 40ml up to 400ml and finally to 2lt. I have had the 400ml going on a stir plate for 20 hours and am concerned at the lack of yeast growth. Maybe it is because the malt extract wolt is so dark, it is difficult to see? The wort was made up of 240g of natural malt extract from Holland & Barrett and diluted in 2l of water and pressure cooked for 20 minutes. The ag reading finished at 1036.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

[CestrIan]

I'd give it a few more days

[YeastWhisperer]

How long did you let your 40ml culture grow?

[Fil]

+1 give it time, but you can confirm activity by sealing the flask top with some cling film, if working away it wont take long for the film seal to start to balloon into a dome,

stopping the stirplate for an hour or so should also allow the creamy white yeast to settle in the flask and give you an indication of the growth you have achieved so far.

next time consider light dme perhaps, the H&B stuff in a jar isnt the best quality for beer, i tried it in a ginger beer ONCE! but as its a starter and your probably going to discard the spent wort off the yeast before pitching its probably not a major issue.

[molehill]

How long did you let your 40ml culture grow?

I gave it 24 hours.... shaking vigorously on a regular basis.

[molehill]

+1 give it time, but you can confirm activity by sealing the flask top with some cling film, if working away it wont take long for the film seal to start to balloon into a dome,

stopping the stirplate for an hour or so should also allow the creamy white yeast to settle in the flask and give you an indication of the growth you have achieved so far.

next time consider light dme perhaps, the H&B stuff in a jar isnt the best quality for beer, i tried it in a ginger beer ONCE! but as its a starter and your probably going to discard the spent wort off the yeast before pitching its probably not a major issue.

I poured the 400ml in to the 1.6l vessel this morning. I would normally use dme but made a cock-up and ordered dextrose sugar instead of dme... Alas...Too much haste without engaging brain! someone on here suggested I try the yeast extract so I did. I may try the clingfilm test on Friday night, if its not looking very active then test on Satuday night... Was planning on doing a brew Saturday but may leave until Sunday now?....

[molehill]

UPDATE...

Like a fool.....I thought it was worth trying to use this starter because I let it settle out after 4 days on the stir-plate, so went ahead with a 23l brew yesterday. I wish I had looked more closely because when I poured off and tasted the wort from the starter, it lacked any sweet taste you normally get and tasted like malt extract. I also realised what I thought way a reasonable depth of yeast had no body to it and finished pouring down the sink.

The trouble is that left me with 23l of beautiful liquor and no starter. I hope I am right in thinking that if I store the liquor in my beer fridge at 4c for a few days it will still be as good? I have ordered a Whitelabs WPL005 from the Malt Miller, which should arrive tomorrow, with the idea of stepping this up and pouring in by Friday. I know they say don't these vials but I have done it before, but wondered what others thought and the stepping ratio.... I was thinking .5l then adding this to 1.5l then decantling and pitching?

The liquor I had planned to saise the temp back up to 21c transerfer it to another fermenter to aerate as I pitch.... Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

[vacant]

When I bought an expired White Labs yeast I made up three slants which populated fine. I wasn't worried when the starter wasn't too vigorous as I tested the OG and then poured a bit out after a couple of days on a stir plate to test the FG before I used it.

[molehill]

Thinking about it.... couldn't I use some of the same liquor for the stepping up rather than goint to the hassle of using DME