Making a cheap starter wort

[fbsf]

Just wanted to share this - I am going to harvest some yeast from a Thwaites nutty mild later on, but didn't fancy splurging £4 of DME to make a starter.

So I decided to do a little mini mash - 500g of MO in 3L of water, then another litre of sparge water. All done in a cast iron cooking pot with a grain bag.

It took next to no time for the water to come up to temp, and 75mins mashing later I had 4L of 1.040 wort.

A quick 10-min boil to kill off any nasties, and It'll get the lid on and into the sink to cool - then any spare wort I'm going to put into 1L soda bottles and bung it into the freezer.

So I've potentially got four starter worts for around 50p of grain and a little time. Bargain...

 

[graysalchemy]

I do the same well worth it. :thumb:

I always use a lower gravity as to not stress the yeast when making a starter. I am sure I read it somewhere or was advised on here, anyway it seems to work and thus works out even cheaper :whistle:

 

[fbsf]

Well, I was just thinking that it's all very well harvesting yeast to save £2.50 of yeast, but when you are using £2-3 of DME, what's the point. At least now each starter is costing me around 10-15p. And I can re-use the yeast from my own bottled beers too. Result!

 

[oz11]

How much DME are you using? Rob the Malt Miller sells it for £5.60/kg. Assuming a 1L starter with 100g DME that's only 56p on the DME. :wha:

 

[Springer]

I am watching and learning.
Have just started messing around with this myself. A I litre starter is mentioned, what brew size is this ideal for and how many bottles of dregs go in. ?
S

 

[oz11]

You wouldn't want to be starting off with a 1L starter, but building your yeast up in steps...say 50ml, to 200ml, to 1L. I believe moving up by a factor of 10 is considered the optimum, i,e. 10ml, to 100ml, to 1L.

100g of DME in 1L water gives about 1040SG(??), but I tend to use about 1020-1030 for the smaller steps.

 

[graysalchemy]

+1 for the above a lower og is better especially in the early stages you just want the yeast to grow not produce alcohol or get stressed. It is better for them to run out of sugar and then get introduced to more sugar when you step it up otherwise they reach a point when they start producing alcohol and not grow, you want the yeast ready for action. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

I am watching and learning.
Have just started messing around with this myself. A I litre starter is mentioned, what brew size is this ideal for and how many bottles of dregs go in. ?
S

S the best investment for making starters is the Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zainashelf

 

[tazuk]

i do mine same as one of lads here at mo ment ie 400g dme to 4l water ie boil dme for 10-15 mins cool then ad yeast for 5 days the put in 330 ml bottles

but when i get 2 conical flash will 2 ltr split vial in 2 lots then can use yeast stir plate :thumb:

 

[fbsf]

Ah, ok, will have to see how this works out then...

I drank the Thwaites, swirled the 1/2" of beer remaining around to dislodge the yeast and added about 2/3rds of a bottle of the wort, then put a bit of sanitised tin foil loosely around the top.

Given what you guys have said, I'm not holding out too much that this attempt will work. At least I had a nice pint of nutty black.

How long do you reckon it should be before I start to see some sort of action - there was nothing this morning after starting it last night...

 

[Springer]

Thanks for the help lads, that book that you mention ed sounds like a good idea to take on my away week next month :thumb: ............................off to amazon now Do fancy a go with some liquid, I have read at the seat of great learning, that it is well worth doing
S
Its not all about the money, but recently yeast prices have risen at a rediculous rate, used to be £1 a packet (Someone will remember when they were two groats. :lol: ). Just did a quick look for Notty and found it at £3.99 for an 11g packet and then at Murphy's for £24.80 for 500g, thats a 45 times mark up. :shock: Perhaps those little foil bags are expensive :hmm:
It's time everyone saved there own and stopped the gravy train :lol:

 

[fbsf]

2 days in and not a bubble. How long should I be waiting before giving up and dumping it?