Yeast Starter Sanitation

Sorry if this has been covered already but here goes...

My LHBS says you have operate in a sterile environment rather than a sanitized one. Is this true? He was talking about sterilizing by burning off isopropyl alcohol, etc. Is this what everyone does for their starters, or is a good Star San soak enough? Thanks!

He's dead wrong, star san is plenty.

_

I just use the same sanitation procedure for starters as I do brewing. Wash, rinse, star san.

Giggle.......

Is the guy at your homebrew shop named TSA?

I've made probably 50-60 starters and the only time I've flamed anything was when harvesting from beer bottles. But for normal starters I've only ever used starsan.

Is this the guy at you lhbs? Seriously, if you have 11 minutes to waste, this is the best.

LOL.....I'm not the only one who thought that....

I'll watch that after work, but I can only imagine. But your replies are helpful, I've been reluctant to get into starters...

I will mention, if you're doing a very SMALL starter with a very SMALL amount of yeast (building up from a slant or something), then sterilization starts to become a better option. But a normal size starter with a commercial pitch of yeast is, as already said, fine just to sanitize.

Ha! I forgot about those videos. Absolutely hilarious.

Starters are no more special than any other aspect of brewing. In a sense all you're doing is make a couple ounces of hopless beer, but instead of drinking the beer and pouring the trub down the sink, you're pouring the beer down the sink and using the "trub."

You apply the same sanitization principles to it as you do your beer. Clean and sanitize.

Revvy said:

...but instead of drinking the beer and pouring the trub down the sink, you're pouring the beer down the sink...

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Psh. Says you.

Revvy said:

Starters are no more special than any other aspect of brewing.

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This is what I thought, but I let him talk me out of it. Should trust my instincts more...

shanecb said:

I will mention, if you're doing a very SMALL starter with a very SMALL amount of yeast (building up from a slant or something), then sterilization starts to become a better option.

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Not sure if a slant is similar to washing yeast. Would you sterilize if making a normal sized starter from washed yeast?

wobrien said:

Not sure if a slant is similar to washing yeast. Would you sterilize if making a normal sized starter from washed yeast?

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Nope. And I bet you half the folks who use slants make their slant starters the same way they make their regular starters. I think shane's answer kinda muddies the water a bit.

Not that he's wrong, you're just jumpy about it, so he's thrown another variable in the mix.

Just go back to the point where you trusted yourself and were relaxed. You can revist that if you ever do work with slants.

Just make some normal starters and see for yourself.

Revvy said:

Just go back to the point where you trusted yourself and were relaxed.

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Haha, will-do

Right, I wasn't trying to say it was anything you should worry about. Just wanted to give you an "FYI" sort of thing. Forget I said anything