Yeast Starters

[trueblue]

I like others ferment for 2 days, also overbuilding to dispersing the myth that liquid yeast is expensive, take it off the plate and let it settle overnight. When I brew the next day I take around 1/2 litre of wort about 10-15mins into the boil and which I crash cool. After pouring off the spent wort from the starter add the cooled fresh wort and return the stir plate until pitching time. I find in that short period of time the yeast is starting to come to life and as a result I tend to have a short lag time.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Thank you all.
Since I have one packet, I will make my starter to both boost my cell count and save some for the next brew day.
Going to follow @foxbat method, which is almost what I do now, Just starting out a little more early. I'll do this all at 18c.

 

[d.carey]

My first ever Stir plate arrived today so i thought i better get up to speed with best practise here, and as always with brewing no simple answers and opinion is split! in the past when ive used liquid ive just chucked it in, or if making a starter have had no specific regime.

It seems some swear by putting it on the stir plate for 2 days, letting it ferment out completely before cold crashing then pouring off the wort before pitching. I like the sound of this, very simple to follow and adopt into a regular regime. Not worried about the preparation time as such as I'm quite happy to use dry yeast for more spontaneous brews and planned ones also.

But then others dismiss this saying the starter needs to be pitching at peak fermentation ( or something like that, i started to drift off before the finer details!). This is likely after 24/36 hours or so as i understand it but sure how do you measure this? and wasn't sure if you could still cold crash with this method?

are there other methods? does it depend on yeast)

so, what has been working for Forum members? i like the idea of putting it on the stir plate for a standard certain time, cold crash, pour off wort then pitch., so im hoping this has got a lot of proponents!

( for the record - , i wont be reusing yeast or over building starters, this will be a fresh pack in a one litre starter each time and be mostly the many variations of IPA, pale and amber/red ales ( at least for the foreseeable future anyway),

Not sure if this is the right thread, but am struggling to find advice on starter step size increments when you start with a single packet of liquid yeast. Straight into 2 or 3 litres I would assume? Any thoughts?

David C.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but am struggling to find advice on starter step size increments when you start with a single packet of liquid yeast. Straight into 2 or 3 litres I would assume? Any thoughts?

David C.

General rule of thumb is to aim for not much more than 1:10 in any one step, 1:20 at a pinch - 3 litres from a normal pack is a bit of a stretch.

 

[Clarence]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but am struggling to find advice on starter step size increments when you start with a single packet of liquid yeast. Straight into 2 or 3 litres I would assume? Any thoughts?

David C.

Just been looking at the Wyeast website on how to use "smack packs". You're supposed to be able to slap the pack to break the nutrient bag, wait for the pack to swell and then pitch it into a batch of beer, which looks like it's around 20 litres.
Of course I always have to build a starter as my packs invariably go out of date, but they look as if they're designed to be pitched directly. A couple of points, then: why do we feel it necessary to make a starter let alone "build" the starter to 3 or more litres, are we brewing on an industrial scale? And, if you can pitch into a 20 litre brew, why not into a 3 litre starter?
As far as keeping some for the next brew, why not simply crop the yeast or harvest the slurry?

No intention of criticising anyone's wisdom or practice, but there seems to be a logical inconsistency here.

 

[starseeker]

Just to muddy the waters a bit more here, i have recently used a liquid yeast for the first time, which was a yeast slant from the MM,and it was recommended to use the slant to make a 300ml starter and pitch that into a max 23l brew.Personally i built the 300ml starter, and after two days added that to a 1200ml starter, two days later, pitched a 1L starter into my 1050 OG wort and saved 500ml for my next brew.In less than 22h i had good activity ,and twelve days later i still have a large krausen which i am going to give another week and then bottle.

 

[d.carey]

Just been looking at the Wyeast website on how to use "smack packs". You're supposed to be able to slap the pack to break the nutrient bag, wait for the pack to swell and then pitch it into a batch of beer, which looks like it's around 20 litres.
Of course I always have to build a starter as my packs invariably go out of date, but they look as if they're designed to be pitched directly. A couple of points, then: why do we feel it necessary to make a starter let alone "build" the starter to 3 or more litres, are we brewing on an industrial scale? And, if you can pitch into a 20 litre brew, why not into a 3 litre starter?
As far as keeping some for the next brew, why not simply crop the yeast or harvest the slurry?

No intention of criticising anyone's wisdom or practice, but there seems to be a logical inconsistency here.

In this instance Clarence I was planning to buy myself a few more weeks before I brew; my liquid yeast is a bit older so thought a week or two in the fridge after ranching buys me some time. Don't Palmer and Papazian suggest a starter when you use liquid yeast? I suggested 2 to 3 litres given the rough number of yeast cells in a liquid pack? But I was asking, yes?

 

[d.carey]

General rule of thumb is to aim for not much more than 1:10 in any one step, 1:20 at a pinch - 3 litres from a normal pack is a bit of a stretch.

If these single packs are designed for 20 litres or so....that's a lot of yeast to start with say 500 ml?

 

[Ossiary]

Yes, when I started using liquid yeast I pitched directly into the fermenter and it turned out ok for Ales. However, with a starter I have found a dramatically reduced Lag Phase and fermentation starts very quickly. As it’s often the way of it I also changed several other variables during the same time so it’s impossible to definitively say that’s due to the use of a starter, but it’s my most likely factor. I keep my liquid yeast in frozen vials, and build up from 5ml of yeast to the required starter size in a few steps. Ale Yeasts with lower pitch rates are more forgiving, and in fact sometimes an “Under Pitch” is required to produce the flavours I want. Lager yeasts need an extra step to produce the cell count I prefer to use.

 

[krispn]

I was after some info too as I plan to brew my big stout next week and although I have a couple of packets of dry yeast I was going to build up a packet of Wyeast Irish Ale yeast to 1.5L-2L starter for this Imperial Stout with a Sg of 1080-1090 ish.

I either brew my Irish Red ale first then pitch onto the yeast cake or build up a starter, maybe overbuild it and reserve some for the Red ale. Decisions!

I do have some of that Proper Starter stuff so was thinking build a starter with that, chill, decant the clear wort on top then rebuild that with a second round of Proper Starter and then have sufficient yeast for both brews.

Makes sense in my mind!