Slow start/no start Ringwood slant

[Chris Craig]

This is really strange...

I made a starter of Ringwood from a slant using my stir plate.  That seemed to go well.  It was a 1L starter, and after 2 days, I stopped the stir plate, and there was a few mm thick yeast cake after crashing in the fridge for 2 days.

I brewed this weekend, and let the flask sit out at room temperature the whole time.  I pitched the Ringwood into 5g of well-aerated wort, and S-05 into another 5g, placed the fermenters in the fermentation chamber at 18C, and walked away.

That was Saturday.  On Sunday morning I had a nice krausen in the S-05, but nothing in the Ringwood.  This morning...nothing in the Ringwood.  I ended up pitching S-05 into the Ringwood this morning to try to salvage it.

Ideas?

[Jake]

I used ring wood 3 or 4 weeks ago and never had any activity for almost 3 days. Never have had such a slow start but fermented out nicely to about 1.013

[fakr]

Chris, is a 1L slant starter enough for a 5GAL batch?  I would think you'd need to do a stepped starter to get the cell count up first.

I have a ringwood slant starter that I'm going to use in my next batch and considered the following:

slant into 1L for 3 days
decant, then add to new 2L starter for 3 days
decant and pitch into 6GAL of 1.050 or less.

[jeffsmith]

With such a small culture to start, I'd almost be inclined to start at 250ml or 500ml before stepping up to 1 or 1.5L.

[Chris Craig]

Chris, is a 1L slant starter enough for a 5GAL batch?  I would think you'd need to do a stepped starter to get the cell count up first.

I have a ringwood slant starter that I'm going to use in my next batch and considered the following:

slant into 1L for 3 days
decant, then add to new 2L starter for 3 days
decant and pitch into 6GAL of 1.050 or less.

I'm thinking a 2L starter is overkill for a standard ale. I've done 1L starters many times before, and have had great results.

[fakr]

And you're talking 1L starters from slants?

[Chris Craig]

Yeah

[fakr]

mrmalty recommends 5 vials of yeast for a 1L starter to get an adequate yeast cell count for a 5GAL batch.  I try to follow their calculator pretty close if making a starter.

Maybe Thomas can comment on this, if he's around?

[Richard]

AFAIK the vials it's talking about aren't the same as ours - they'd be the white labs vials, not streaked vials.

[jeffsmith]

AFAIK the vials it's talking about aren't the same as ours - they'd be the white labs vials, not streaked vials.

Agreed, While Labs vials or Wyeast smack packs. I believe each contains ~100 billion cells. Significantly more than a cultured slant.

[fakr]

yeah, couldn't find "slant" on the mrmalty calculator but used the vials as an example.

The slants have a cell count in the millions...which is why I would do a stepped starter.

But Thomas would be the authority on this.

by the way...I wonder if a person could use weight measurement of a slury with  a set consistency to predict cell count....a rough prediction mind you...