Yeast Starter Question

So I am about to brew an all grain Terrapin Rye Pale Ale clone which I am looking forward to a lot, and before I start brewing this tomorrow, I would like to have my yeast starter made tonight to give the yeast at least 24 hours to do its thing.

I have a couple questions though which have been on my mind for quite some time now. So I saved some yeast about 1.5 months ago (White Labs 001). As you can see in the picture below, I have recently dumped out the beer that was sitting on top of this trub/yeast. So tonight when I make my starter, how much of this trub/yeast material should I add? About 1/3 of it?

My next question is the following: John Palmer as well as the pictorial on this site, says to use 2 cups of water with 1/2 cup of DME. 2 cups of water equates to 0.125 gallons, which then equates to 0.47 liters. I have been reading that small starters are not ideal. Then why in the hell am I only adding 2 cups of water, which will probably get boiled down to even less than that?!

Well, the size of your starter will dictate the amount of yeast you grow, so you should size it based on your anticipated OG. I'm guessing you're about 1.060?

You could make a 2 cup (1 pint) starter as per the recipe, or you could double it. I'd say only a few ounces of the yeast/trub is needed. 1/3 of what you have should be more than enough.

You won't lose a ton of water, cuz you only need to boil it for pasteurization (~10-15 min).

SterlingHopper said:

Well, the size of your starter will dictate the amount of yeast you grow, so you should size it based on your anticipated OG. I'm guessing you're about 1.060?

You could make a 2 cup (1 pint) starter as per the recipe, or you could double it. I'd say only a few ounces of the yeast/trub is needed. 1/3 of what you have should be more than enough.

You won't lose a ton of water, cuz you only need to boil it for pasteurization (~10-15 min).

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The anticipated OG is 1.054.

Yeah, that's not real high. Do you know about Mr Malty's calculator? It's great.

SterlingHopper said:

Yeah, that's not real high.

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I mean to say, one pint should be plenty for a 5 gallon batch at this average gravity.

10g DME : 100ml water is an easy ratio to follow as well

if that is washed yeast you may not even need a starter and can just pitch the slurry - you can calculate how much with mr malty as well

+1. I don't bother making a starter for my harvested slurry. The Mr. Malty calc will estimate its viability by harvest date.

So I made my starter yesterday, and it has been doing well so far. I have another question. I would like to brew my beer today when I get home after class. Should I put the yeast starter in the fridge while I am gone (4 hours), so that I can decant the non-yeasty liquid before pitching? I did only make a 2 cup starter, so I feel adding the whole thing to my batch won't affect it all that much, but if I can decant some liquid, I would feel a little bit better about adding it to my beer. So would 4 hours give it enough time to separate?

Edit: I just looked at my starter and it is at the high krausen stage (I heard this is the time to pitch). I don't know if this changes anything.

Normally I decant, however with short time frame and small starter I'd just pitch it all. Have fun.

samc said:

Normally I decant, however with short time frame and small starter I'd just pitch it all. Have fun.

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Okay, cool.