Clumpy Starter

[andyinva]

Planning on brewing today, but when I checked on my starter this morning the yeast was all chunky, flying around in the erlenmeyer like cows and trucks in Twister. Is that a definite sign of contamination? I noticed when I poured it from the smack pack it wasn't nice and smooth looking; like when you pour sour creamer in your coffee. A lot of small congealed yeast bits. Wyeast 1968 London ESB. Starter took off well and foamed nicely. Looked smooth and creamy last night.

[Otter]

It depends on the yeast. English Ale yeast is very flocculant and gets really clumpy. California Ale yeast doesn't look like that, because it's not as flocculant.

[BayouBrew]

I see the same thing with English yeast because they are so flocculant (as stated above). I wouldn't worry about it.

[andyinva]

I'm doing a 10 gallon batch and comparing two different strains: 1968 London ESB and 1275 Thames Valley. The 1275 looks normal. Gonna go ahead with both and hope for the best. Thanks.

[hotrod38]

Very normal for the 1968 strain to look like that. Wait until your primary fermentation takes off. It will look like egg drop soup.

[Sent From My iPhone]

Wyeast 1968 London ESB = Cottage Cheese. Perfectly normal.

[BDawg]

Wyeast 1968 (and White Labs WLP002) - just like Hotrod and Sheen said above, it clumps up like cottage cheese. This is 100% perfectly normal.

[Mylo]

WLP007, too. That shit freaked me out the first time I used it...


Mylo