Weird yeast starter - brewing tonight!

[Crackin]

Shed some light. Here are the parameters:

Wyeast 1056. Smacked the pack 7pm. Made 4 liters wort with DME 11pm. Put in ice bath 11:30 pm. Fell asleep. Woke up, 4:am. Wort was too cold (57F). Put on stove for 5 minutes. Felt better (I guess 65F). Pitched very swollen smack pack. Added O2 from a bottle/carb stone. Went to sleep. Woke up 8:30 am. Little to no activity. Added more O2. Went to work. Came home 1pm. Very little activity, however:

I put the carb stone in and it was creating lots of bubbles, before I even turned the O2 on! Turn on the O2 and had a "boil over" of effervessance. Did this 2 more times, with more "boil overs." Starter smells fine, and smells "yeasty" but has not created a head, and visible bubbles yet, however there seems to be a shitload of bubbles (CO2, I assume) in solution.

Anyone see this? I lost the bar to my stir plate, so I have to resort to intermittent O2. I think it could be 2 things, 1) pitchted too cold and shocked the yeast, or 2) Didn't get a hot break from the DME, so it is messing up the normal fermentation.

[Ozwald]

I'd wait a little longer & see what it does in the next 24 hours.

[dmtaylor]

That's an awful lot of dicking around to get a little American ale yeast going. Precisely why I use US-05.

I think Oz is right. Let 'er sit for a little while. Untouched. You don't need to worry.

[Lewybrewing]

It might just be me, but if anything goes strange with my yeast I toss it. Not worth wasting 4-6 hours on a brewday for a 5 buck vile/pack of yeast to fuck it up. I use White Labs but I always have a packet of dry in-case shit like this happens

[Crackin]

I threw it out and bought 2 vials (for 10 gallons) of new yeast. I didn't want to risk it and mess up my beer. Everything about this brew was trying to make me quit. First, sketchy yeast starter - solved. Next, stuck mash - solved with a little patience. Next - carboys blew their airlocks and sprayed the inside of the fridge - cleaned it up. I am lucky I didn't run out of propane.

All said, against all odds, this beer will succeed! (or I will die trying).

[TheDarkSide]

What temp are you fermenting at to blow the airlocks so quickly? Did you make a yeast starter with the 2 new vials, or just pitch 1 in each?

I hate carboy explosions, which is why I always use a blow off tube, no matter what the beer.

Good luck with this...I hope it comes out!