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My starter has no activity.

Berkyjay

Grandmaster Brewer
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I made a starter last evening and I checked it today when I got home and there is very little activity in it.  The surface has bubbles on it and there appears to be an accumulation of yeast on the bottom of the beaker, but I am not getting the vigorous bubbling that I have in the past.  My wort that I made was 1.050.  My only issue that worries me is that my fridge has a tendency to get too cold and some liquids sometimes form ice crystals.  I believe that there were ice crystals in the wyeast pack when I took it out to warm.  Could this have an adverse affect on the yeast?
 
Ice will break the cell walls of the yeast. You only need one to survive to start a new colony. It may take extra time though. Maybe the yeast starter was very active and finished quickly? Make some more wort and add it to the mix. I have done it up to 4 times to get some big lagers going.
 
Berkyjay said:
 The surface has bubbles on it and there appears to be an accumulation of yeast on the bottom of the beaker,

Maybe it fermented out faster than normal.
+1 on just adding more DME .
stevemwazup
 
BobBrews said:
Ice will break the cell walls of the yeast. You only need one to survive to start a new colony. It may take extra time though. Maybe the yeast starter was very active and finished quickly? Make some more wort and add it to the mix. I have done it up to 4 times to get some big lagers going.

I was thinking that it might have just blew through the wort overnight.  There is a nice healthy amount of yeast forming in it so it doesn't seem to be a lose.  I might try adding some fresh wort in it tonight however.
 
Freezing can break the cell walls of yeasts.  I've frozen yeast and gotten away with it but it's pretty much a slam dunk that when the crystals form they will kill some yeasts.
How many?  That's prolly a function of how many freeze-thaw cycles your yeasts experienced.
 
It looks like it was just a very active yeast.  I boiled up a small amount of wort and added it to the starter and it started a vigorous fermentation within 15 mins.  Any way, the beer has been made and it is fermenting just fine now....so no worries.  :)
 
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