My Yeast Starter failed! What am I doing wrong?!

Question: Firstly the Wyeast pack was 11 months old and it took 4 days to expand. I then made a starter using liquid malt extract (not dried). It went into high kruesen after 2 days! I let it settle and then transferred it to the fridge. The next day I pulled it out but am not sure what I am ment to be looking for. There does not seem to be a yeast slurry sitting at the bottom! Is refrigerating it bad? Is using Liquid extract not preferred? Is it better to pitch at high kruesen? I would prefer not to pitch the starter work.

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Answers: Firstly the Wyeast pack was 11 months old and it took 4 days to expand. I then made a starter using liquid malt extract (not dried). It went into high kruesen after 2 days! I let it settle and then transferred it to the fridge. The next day I pulled it out but am not sure what I am ment to be looking for. There does not seem to be a yeast slurry sitting at the bottom! Is refrigerating it bad? Is using Liquid extract not preferred? Is it better to pitch at high kruesen? I would prefer not to pitch the starter work.

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Your yeast starter got bacteria in it. This occurred before you refrigerated it. Refrigeration will not kill the yeast, it will only make it dormant.

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Maybe you have an ale yeast that sleeps at cold temps. It sounds like everything was going fine until you put it in the fridge.
11 months is really old for a liquid strain but if it blew up the pack and went to high kruesen then it seems fine.
Take your fermenter out of the fridge and see what happens.

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