motobrewer

Recipes 

I made a 500ml starter from a wyeast smack pack today, with hopes of pitching it on saturday.

Did i make it way too eary?

If I did, can I boil another 500ml of wort, cool that and add the night before brew day to kick it back up?

Thanks!

Blender

Recipes 

I don't think you necessarily made it to early but I would step it up anyway. A 1000ml starter is better for a 5 gallon batch.

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Gary

Zen_Brew

Recipes 

You could just let it fermet out and then decant off the beer, but I agree with blender that you are likely better off with a 1000ml starter so you might try stepping it up. What is the planned gravity of the beer you are going to brew?

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elmetal

Recipes 

when stepping up, do you guys fridge and then decant the liquid and then add 1000ml of new wort?

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motobrewer

Recipes 

1.061 expected OG

so, should I top off now? tons of airlock activity, but no krausen....nice white layer on the bottom of the flask.

shortyjacobs

Recipes 

You'll never get a krausen, (or very rarely), in a starter. I sometimes don't even get a ring of bubbles, (the "activity ring"). If you aren't brewing til Saturday, then either today or tomorrow decant and add 1000 mL of wort, or just add 500 mL of wort more, (1000 mL fresh wort would be better), and you'll be golden by Saturday.

You can't really pitch TOO early, since even pitching directly from the smack pack will yield OK results, but giving it more food and volume of wort to build up culture size is always better....I'd say cold crash it for a few hours, decant, and add 1000 mL fresh wort. Hell, I don't even usually cold crash, as the yeast usually settles out and flocs quite nicely by itself at room temp.

motobrewer

Recipes 

great info, thanks. no krausen - then what does "pitch at high krausen" mean?

how much do you usually decant? all of it until you hit the white layer, or just like 1/2 the liquid?

cold crash in fridge?

thanks!

shortyjacobs

Recipes 

Pitch when most active...tough to tell on starters, at least for me. YMMV.

I decant all minus about 1/4"....so I have like 1/4"-1/2" yeast, plus 1/4" beerwater...this allows me to swirl to mix and then pitch. If you are decanting to add fresh wort, just pour it all off, then dump your fresh wort on top and shake/stirplate it.