lalenny

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I was getting ready to make an ESB yesterday when I realized that I was out of DME. I did have a bunch of corn sugar though. I wanted to make a starter, so I heated up some water and corn sugar and used it as a starter. It seemed to work, but my question is will that cause problems and why is it not a common practice or recommended anywhere?


Thanks

D-brewmeister

Recipes 

It should work fine, but you might want to add some yeast nutrient, because there are some aspects of malt that help yeast grow and divide. Other than that, I would think that the only thing to think about is the flavor effect, which would probably be just as much as if you used it in the wort. So as long as it is not a huge starter, with lot's of corn sugar, it should be fine. So you're doin an esb. Sounds tasty Talk to ya later!

__________________
O, guid ale comes, and guid ale goes,
Guid ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon -
Guid ale keeps my heart aboon! -- Robert Burns

uglygoat

Recipes 

this topic has been on my mind of late too.

switching to all grain i did primarily for the cost of the ingredients... i'm sick and tired of paying as much for dme as i do for grain and getting 2/3 less. so i am not too thrilled about buying another three pound sack for 13 bucks.

what are some other alternatives as far as dried products such as cornstarch?

i'm also thinking of collecting a quart or two of sparge runoff from the next mash and freezing it for the starter.

thoughts techniques others use?

__________________
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The kind of lubrication to make your engine tick

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lalenny

Recipes 

FYI the corn sugar seemed to have worked. The batch of beer that I pitched that yeast on is doing great right now!

I have read that some people can extra wort from their batch and use that for starters. May not be a bad idea? I think that it would be better then freezing, plus when you are ready to use it it is already at room temp!

DyerNeedOfBeer

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This just comes to mind reading the thread...

After siphoning off my wort to the primary fermenter, the hops in the bottom of the boiler still has quite a bit of wort in it which slowly drains out. Maybe I will strain this out and save it for starters. I usually don't take the time to do this to add it to my brew since I want to get it pitched right away so there are some 'left overs' that could be put to use in this fashion. Question here is... would there be too much 'junk' such as hot break or anything else which would make it a bad starter 'fluid' ?

lalenny

Recipes 

I think that I am going to can a few jars of my next batch of beer for use as starter fluid. I don't thing that the trub will make that much difference in future batches at all.