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bad starter?

justinl

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how long can a starter sit before you pitch, i used the starter i made three days before,it had all settled on the bottom,and 9 hours after pitching still nothing. Any help?
 
You typically want to pitch the starter, when it is still active (bubbly).  After the yeast have consumed most of the sugars in your starter they take a siesta on the bottom.  You can boil/cool some more wort and feed them again, to get them going.  If they were at room temp 60-75, they were probably fine.  If it was too hot 75º+ for too long, they may have died off.  You will also want to try to "match" the temp of your starter with the wort you are pitching into.  Pitching a 75º starter into a 65º wort can stun them a bit.  Odds are, though, your yeast were fine, they may just need 24 hours to get rolling.
 
It could also be the oxygen levels in your wort. Did you oxygenate well enough? If not that could also cause a slow start. As far as starters go there are a few points of view on when to pitch. Some say during high krausen and others say as soon as the yeast settles decant most of the liquid, swirl it up to break up the trub and pitch this slurry. If you dont see bubbles soon get some dry yeast in there and that should get you going. 
 
thanks for the heads up, after pitching the extra yeast from a white labs veil i got some reaction, i don't know if i just missed the fire works from the starter; it was late and i went straight to bed. Any way i looked and say a brown ring about an inch up from the beer so its possible i just missed it,do you think i messed it up by throwing the extra yeast in, 9 hours later. i also have a question about wine, particularly the reading on my hydrometer. thanks for the help.
JL.
 
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