Problem with yeast

[daddies-beer-factory]

Can anyone help me please ?
I made a yeast starter (safale - 04)on thursday night following Graham Wheelers method , sterilise glass bottle, bung & airlock.
I boiled some water in a saucepan to add some liquid malt extract - but I think this was the problem - i added a dash of CRS to the water as our water is
very high in Calcium Carbonate (I didnt measure it out)
the yeast did not do anything - it just sat at the bottom for 36 hrs - no activity
I made sure the water had cooled before I added the yeast, and there was plenty of oxygen
did I kill the yeast with too much CRS, or did the residue of Starsan in the bottle affect the yeast ?

I had a similar problem last month , I made a batch of beer - I had a wyeast smack pack - I cooled the beer, poured in the smackpack , and nothing happened
for over 36 hours - i tried stirring it up to add oxygen but this didnt work, so I added a spare packet of safale - 04 (poured it in dry) - luckily this got it going.

but this time i added the correct amount of CRS to the HLT, but there would have been residue of un-rinsed Starsan in all the vessels
Is the Starsan affecting the Yeast ?

[Matt12398]

I have very soft water so I don't have the issues you have with your water but I don't think you should be adding CRS to your water you're using for your yeast starter. Definitely don't just add acids without measuring them either.

Whilst hard water can be a problem in brewing certain styles it tends to be in relation to mash chemistry and obtaining the correct pH. I wasn't aware of people treating water they use for starters other than perhaps the addition of yeast nutrient.

If you're having issues with yeast on more than one occasion you'd have to be very unlucky for this to happen and it suggests it's something you're doing.

[JammyBStard]

Probably the CRS has reduced your PH and the yeast died.
You really don't need to, and are better off not making a starter for dried yeast. I made this mistake myself when I was new to brewing. Dried yeast is an all in one product. The yeast has been grown and stuffed with nutrients by safale and then dried. the packet is designed to ferment 5 gallons of beer, it dosent need growing.
The best thing you can do is re-hydrate it before pitching. The way I do it is take a sanitised Jam jar and pour about an inch of boiling water into the bottom put a lid on and let it cool. When it's cooled I shake the jar for a while to get some oxygen back into the water and then open it up and sprinkle the yeast onto the surface. Put the lid back on and leave it for half an hour to rehydrate and then swirl the jar to mix it in. Give it about an hour and you'll see a thick creamy layer on the top and probably some bubbles and it's good to pitch. If it's sat on the bottom It's probably a dud. I've only ever had one dud and that was from my local home brew shop where he keeps the yeast in a box on the window sill!

[daddies-beer-factory]

Thank you - I didnt realise yeast was ph sensitive !

[Matt12398]

Everything living is.