Slow Starter

[Ted.B]

Been having a go at making a starter and it hasn't gone well. I wasn't too particular with my measurements as I was using a few different recipes but essentialy I had a mixture of apple and grape juice along with the juice from a lemon and an orange. A pinch of nutrient and a teaspoon of sugar. The ratio of juice to water was maybe around50/50. After two days where I have not observed any activity I decided to just add some more water as I felt my starting SG was probably too high. Six hours later I still had not seen any activity so I finaly decided to take a reading and was suprised to see that the SG was somewhere around 1.050.
Have I blinked and missed the ferment ? Should I just add a bit of sugar now and see what happens ?

[norman]

Interesting question ... I'm a newbie myself, and not used many starters. I would be interesting to get more info on the size of starter you have. I'd think that starting with a teaspoon of sugar would imply that your starters going to be quite small? So perhaps the juice of a lemon and an orange is quite a lot (if you added all of it), as this is probably what you would add to a whole gallon. Might be best to start again if it's not got going by now. Have a look around the forum, there's bound to be a standard starter recipe in here. Anyone got a recommendation?

[Rich]

Yeast starter thread in the Tutorials section, HERE


It does sound like your starter was a bit 'hap hazard' with a bit of this and that in. From the text in the link, I go with the alternative starter medium, 300ml water, 3 teaspoons sugar, a pinch of acid (yes the text does say 1tsp, the yeast only nee a more acidic environment not to feel like they're inside a lemon) and a good pinch of nutrient. This goes in a wine bottle and shaken/stirred a few times whilst it's going. It then all goes in the must to ferment.

Beer I do much different...

[lockwood1956]

Should I just add a bit of sugar now and see what happens ?

No...at SG 1.050 there is enough sugar present, I tyhink however there is too much acid present, the juice of 1 lemon is equivalent to 1 tsp of citrric acid, you also have the juice of an orange in there too.

What sort of yeast was it?

what is the expriy date on the packet/tub?

The whole idea behind starters is to get a really good yest colony going and so ensure your must is open to spoilage organisms (as its the perfect growth medium for them) for the shortest possible time, this is why we make starters in advance. You must (pardon the pun) be careful in preparing them to get the best results.
follow the yeast starter tutorial Rich gave you the link to, and you wontr go far wrong

hope that helps
regards
Bob

[goldseal]

My first thought was 'too much acid' too.

[NorthernWiner]

I had a mixture of apple and grape juice along with the juice from a lemon and an orange. A pinch of nutrient and a teaspoon of sugar.

Were you making a starter or a cocktail?

No rocket science or alchemy required to make a starter. All you need to hydrate yeast is 100 mls lukewarm water and maybe just a pinch of sugar to sustain it for a short period. Once the yeast is hydrated, I start adding grape juice (or whatever I'm fermenting) back to it. You start with smaller amounts, and once the yeast recovers from the initial shock of each addition (15-30 minutes), you can then add more. With each juice addition, I usually double the amount of the previous addition.

[Ted.B]

Well what I have now is fizzing along quite well after adding some more sugar to it. Ended up without about 1.5 litres of starter now.

[lockwood1956]

Excellent that it is fizzing along now......


but this isn't due to the sugar addition, it is the yeast coming out of its lag phase and beginning to ferment.

regards
bob

[Ted.B]

What I need to do is put a recipe list together with all the measurements in the format I understand, namely metric. I have a good acurate set of scales so I have become used to working in grams alone.

[lockwood1956]

I converted all of CJJ Berrys recipes to metric, if that helps

[lockwood1956]

Sorry...the link would have been useful eh?

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3985

[Ted.B]

Cheers !