losman26

Recipes 

Tomorrow, I'm gonna brew up a clone of pliny the elder which has an OG 1.080 using Wyeast American ale.

I see so many discrepancies as the amount of water and DME to use while making a yeast starter. Some people say 1/2 cup, some 1/3, some 1 cup. So what is the right amount? How much water? I will be pitching the yeast into a 6 gal better bottle.

Gear101

Recipes 

here http://brew.stderr.net/starter_wort_calc.html


keep it under 1.039

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mightynintendo

Recipes 

with a beer like that, it's also pretty important to make sure you don't under pitch the yeast. a half cup of DME is only good for a 1 liter (or smaller) starter. in 24 hours with one smack pack and 1 liter of 1.040 starter without a stir plate, you will only have a yeast count of 9 million cells per mL. That's only half (actually less) the yeast you should pitch for that beer.

beergolf

Recipes 

If you have a scale it is easy.


1000 ml water and 100g DME. 10 to 1 ratio. easy. Scale it to any size you want.

1.5 L to 150g DME.......

losman26

Recipes 

so do I go for a full cup then?

wolverinebrewer

Recipes 

That's still not enough. A 5 gal. 1.080 beer requires about 273 billion cells. That means you need either 3 liquid yeast packs, or a 4+ liter starter using 1 pack, or a 2.5 liter starter using 1 pack and intermittent shaking, or a 1.6 liter starter using 1 pack and a stir plate.

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losman26

Recipes 

OK, I did my starter of 2.5 liters. Should I use tin foil or an air-lock. I don't have a stir plate, so I the o2 was done by shaking the jug.

losman26

Recipes 

One more question. The recipe kit says at the end, to fill up until 5 and 1/8 gal, before pitching yeast. Does this change at all, now that I have a starter of 2.5 liters to add?

DannyD

Recipes 

well it depens on what your OG must be? and then the size of your fermenter?

SakARow

Recipes 

Just for a reference for you. I make my starters to have an OG of ~ 1.050 and about a volume of 600 mL. I start them about 24 hours before I brew and shake often. My 10g batches have been fermenting out fully in 3 days +5 days to let the yeast do a little cleanup before I cold crash them. So 8 days of fermenting and then 5 days of cold crashing. I have been getting very bright beers and my OG's are normally about 1.070.

As far as tin foil to an air-lock, its just a preference, but remember that open fermentation is the most healthy form of fermentation.

Most importantly, no matter how you make your starter, you are doing it right! There are 100 different ways and each way has its own perk. For the record I like to add my starter to my wort when the yeast are as active as possible (no decanting, just happy yeast going into an even better playground than the one they were previously). This way my lag time is only about 3 hours!

Cheers!