Bokonon

Recipes 

I've had 3 funky starters going now. 1 with roselare blend, 1 with WL belgian sour blend, and 1 with dregs from orval. I'm going to brew up some beers real soon and want to use these after primary fermentation is done.

I've basically got 1/2 gal starters from each of the blends and a pint starter from the dregs. I don't feel like I need to pitch the whole starter in, but I could be wrong.

Can I just use something to pull off 100ml or so of each to use instead of pitching the whole starters?

If I do, should I stir up the starters to get everything back in suspension or will there be sufficient bugs in suspension? I'm not sure if everything will drop out

ericd

Recipes 

I'd just use half and fill it back up with a <1.03 DME solution.

Bokonon

Recipes 

Do you think I should swirl everything up before pulling it off? The roselare has what looks to be the start of a pellicle forming, while the WL sour blend doesn't really have anything forming on top.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to pitch into one big batch or do a few smaller batches. If I did smaller batches I'd do 5 gal with roselare, 5 gal with WL sour blend, and 5 gal with a blend of the two.

ericd

Recipes 

Yeah, I'd mix everything up before pouring it into your main beer. I've heard destroying the pellicile is bad but since it's just a starter you are keeping around to mix into bigger batches I don't really think it would matter, the pellicle would reform I think. I think just using half is a good idea because that way you can keep your starters going on indefinately.