Anyway, to save room in the fridge, I first used 2 quart-sized jars, let them sit for about 24 hours, then decanted into 4 4-oz jelly jars. As the pic shows, it's pretty much all yeast in there, no trub. But my question is: since these jars are pretty small, is the yeast in one of them enough for a regular-sized starter? Or should I combine the yeast into 2 jars? I'm honestly not interested in having to start with a smaller starter, then step it up (at least for a normal OG beer), since, well, that's more work than I wanna do. If that's the case, I'd rather just combine them.
Palefire, I don't know if you figured out your amounts yet, but I am wondering the same thing. If I'm making a starter out of my 16 oz jars this won't be enough liquid for a 1000ml starter and I'm hoping to avoid using 2 jars if I can. So, for any medium gravity beer (1.050 range) will this be enough yeast cells without stepping it up?
And also, how much DME should I use for this amount starter? Thanks guys!
P.S Also I'm wondering how close the ale styles can be to use for other ales. I'll probably have to read up on yeasts to get that answer though
I typically make my starters for medium gravity beers with 4 cups of water to 1 cup of light dme.
I boil that that for 15 minutes and cool.
I add 3 turkey baster pulls of washed yeast and let it rip.
Sorry guys, I'm reading this thread backwards and just saw this. So, does this sound right? don't worry about using the whole jar of washed yeast, but instead only a small (about 3 baster pulls) amount with the flask? And if so, how many yeast cells can we approximately be using?
Thanks Bernie Brewer,
Read whole thread. First page says it all, great work. Brewing over six years now, you guys are going to make a good homebrewer out of me yet!
__________________
If I had a nickel for every beer I drank....I would be retired already.
Now I'm going to try my hand at this. Washing and saving bit.
I did a re-pitch after racking off a yeast, taking a few table spoons of the yeast cake and pitching that into the next primary (similar beer, aeromatic difference only). As that worked so well, I'm going to take that first secondary and save that yeast.
Palefire, I don't know if you figured out your amounts yet, but I am wondering the same thing. If I'm making a starter out of my 16 oz jars this won't be enough liquid for a 1000ml starter and I'm hoping to avoid using 2 jars if I can. So, for any medium gravity beer (1.050 range) will this be enough yeast cells without stepping it up?
And also, how much DME should I use for this amount starter? Thanks guys!
P.S Also I'm wondering how close the ale styles can be to use for other ales. I'll probably have to read up on yeasts to get that answer though
Well, I've used my washed yeast for 3 brews since then, and every time I used just one my jelly jars' worth of yeast in a starter. Just made an appropriate sized starter (according to Mr. Malty), let it run on the stir plate for ~48 hours, and either pitched (for the 1L starters) or cold crashed, decanted and pitched (for larger starters). Went great every time.
Oh, and I just used the rule of 10 (from Mr. Malty, too): 1 g of DME for every 10 ml of water. So for a 1000ml starter you use 100 g of DME. (I'm remembering those numbers off the top of my head, so someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
As far as ale styles, yeah, read up. There's a lot of information here!
Probably a silly question, but if you let the water cool in the fridge over night, do you let it warm back up a little prior to dumping into the fermentor so as to not shock the yeast with 35 degree water?
Also, I tried this on a batch yesterday and had a hell of a time trying to pour off the top, the trub and all wanted to stay in suspension. I looked at my jars this morning and there is about a 1/2 inch layer of trub, but there is also a distinct yeast layer on top (the batch was a stout, so the color bands were quite apparent). I'm thinking of getting a mini auto siphon and using a bottling wand. Thoughts?
__________________ I love the sound of an airlock bubbling in the morning. It sounds like.....VICTORY.
Used a plastic turkey baster to siphon off the top liquid which worked well although slow for wash #2 as someone had suggested. Filled up clear beer bottles to the very top and capped for long term storage.
FYI, the four week old Wyeast 3944 Hoegaarden strain washed yeast started faster than the original smack pack(which did not swell up since I did not break the nutrient pack inside). No starter, just poured the washed yeast in the kit wort(79F) after letting it warm up to room temp.
Last edited by fiat84; 01-24-2010 at 02:01 PM.
Reason: update
Ok, I tried this again with another batch. This time it was a blonde ale. The major difference between this and my first batch was that the first batch was in an ale pale and the second was in a carbory. It is by far monumentally easier to do this from a carboy. I laid the carboy on its side while it settled. Then it was an easy matter to pour off the top. All said and done, for my second batch I have a beautiful and super clean batch of Abbey Ale yeast in some mason jars.
__________________ I love the sound of an airlock bubbling in the morning. It sounds like.....VICTORY.
Linear Mode
