Vessel for starters

[BDawg]

I used to use the 1/2 gallon Growler jugs from my local brewery before I got my ehrlenmeyers, but that was just because they were convenient.
Get any 1/2->1 gallon (2->4L) vessel and use tin foil on the top or like somebody posted in another thread, a sandwich bag that was immersed in star san. All you need to do is keep the nasties from falling in, and make it big enough that it won't blow off. RDWHAHB

[brewerTristan]

I had a look at my starters today and neither of them have krausen forming yet. Should I be concerned? Could lack of aeration be the problem? I'm a little worried because I'm starting my brew day now and would like to be assured that my yeast is ruined.

[huskerbrew]

I had a smack pack of Pac Man yeast once that I made a starter for. Two days in the starter and no apparent action whatsoever, but I needed to pitch. Went ahead and pitched it and had active fermentation in under 5 hours. Still don't have an explanation for it, but it worked nonetheless. Might just try and pitch anyway and see what happens.

[Bugeater]

Quite often you just miss the active fermentation stage for your starters. It will often go to full krausen and drop back down in 8-10 hours and finish fermentation in 18 hours. If you let your starter go overnight, you probably just missed the action.

The thing to look for is an increase in the amount of sediment on the bottom of your starter container. If you are using a stir plate look for the color of the wort to get noticeably lighter in color. If you see neither after 18-24 hours then you may have a problem.

Wayne