some yeast starter questions...

Hey guys,

I have never made a start before, and would like to try it tonight for a fat tire clone I am making tomorrow. Please let me know what you think about this.

The grain bill is 9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row barley, 8 oz. Special B, 8 oz. Caramel 120L, 8 oz. Munich 10L. The SG is supposed to be 1.042-1.046. I have read that I should make a starter for anything >1.04. I will be using a Wyeast Belgian Abbey Yeast smack pack. I have Light DME for the starter.

My questions are, do I need a starter when using a smack pack? I bought a Erlenmeyer Flask from a brew store, and I'm assuming that I can put it directly on the stove, (or should I boil in a regular kitchen pot)? How do I figure out exactly how much water and how much DME I need in the flask?

My last question is an equipment one. The current stopper/airlock setup that I have is too small for the flask. Is there anyway I could rig a home made air lock just to protect the yeast for the 12 hours before I pitch it tomorrow?

Thanks all.

Yes you should do a starter, see mrmalty.com for how big. You can boil in your flask no problems at all. 10grams of DME per 100ml of water is a ratio.

That would be one cup of DME for 1 liter of water for those of us who don't have metric scales. About 1.040 SG but I don't think it is that critical.

If your flask is true borosilicate glass, you can heat it on the stove and put it in cold water to cool. Sounds crazy but it is that strong. Personally I boil in a small pot and cool it in cold water then, pour into the flask. It is easier to get DME into a pot than the small top of the flask.

Do not use an airlock. Just cover loosely with a piece of tin foil. Be sure to shake the flask thoroughly to aerate the wort and, if you are not using a stir plate, continue to shake it regularly. More is better. Figure on 12 -24 hours to pitch. They say pitch at high kreusan but I can never get so lucky to have the timing work out that way. I usually figure on 24 hours.

Is there a reason not to use an airlock? Other than the obvious reason that it requires more equipment?

Letting in oxygen encourages more yeast growth. An airlock will prevent additional oxygen from entering the starter vessel and being absorbed by the wort, which will cause your final cell count to be lower. This is also the reason a stir plate is recommended---it's constantly aerating the wort, so oxygen levels will remain high and the starter will yield more viable cells.

Thanks all. I don't have to worry about contamination with only tin/aluminum foil instead of an airlock?

Zeppman - nope, just keep the tin foil on there!

A starter is going to be a very aerated mini beer. That is one of the benefits of flocculating and decanting the beer and pitching only the slurry, so you're not adding 10-20%/vol of aerated beer to your wort.

Zeppman said:

Thanks all. I don't have to worry about contamination with only tin/aluminum foil instead of an airlock?

Click to expand...

The only form of contamination you should worry about is a fruit fly crawling into your starter. Contaminating microorganisms float around on the breeze, which means as long as you've got the mouth loosely covered and the foil hangs down an inch or so all around, nothing is going to get under/up/over the lip.

To eliminate the fly problem, usually I rubber band sanitized cheesecloth across the mouth of my flask to keep flies out, then put sterilized foil loosely over that.

+1 on the cheese cloth to keep out the fruit flies. I've done the same with a hop bag and rubber band as well.

Ok, made my starter last night and this morning the liquid was a light amber/orange color with an obvious layer of yeast on the bottom of the flask. I shook it awhile before I left for work. Is that all I am looking for? Should there be bubbles in the liquid? Tonight when I pitch, what is the procedure, should I just mix everything up and dump it? Or do I want to get rid of some of that excess liquid, mix and then pitch?

Zepp - That is what you are looking for. At most you get a small krausen (looks like a scum almost) on the top of the mini wort. Just swirl the container every time you walk by it.
You can either dump it all or decant, but with a new starter (from a yeast smack/vial) I usually dump the whole thing in (Its a 1 L starter, right?). If you are brewing a dark beer and your starter is made with extra light DME (or vice versa), then maybe go the decanting method so you don't dilute the color slightly.

In general, a 1 L starter going into an ale = dump the whole thing in (try to match malt extract color to beer color, roughly). Hey, you will end up with slightly more beer! Prolly just making up for what your are going to lose when racking, really.

Now a 1 GAL starter going into a lager = decant and pitch only the yeast slurry, because you don't want 20% v/v of an aerated starter going into that lager!

Great, thanks for confirming that my starter looks ok, and I'll dump it all in! I used plain light malt extract, and it is going to be a amber ale.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that about not using an airlock.