Cheapo

Recipes 

Hey this may have been asked before but I've never seen it....if I were to start up a yeast batch in warm water.....would it actually reproduce enough to give itself the numbers necessary to eat sugars AS EFFECTIVELY as if I had put them in a sugary environment? Maybe a strange question- I've just never heard an explanation as to a yeast starter...

__________________
Snaggle Tooth Brewing
Primary 1: Caramel Ale
Primary 2: Pumpkin Amber Ale
Primary 3: Makeshift 'Draft'
Secondary 1: Empty.... :(
Secondary 2: Empty.... :(

BluBruShack

Recipes 

Yeasties need food, so warm water would reconstitute them but I do not believe that outside of nutrition that is included in the packet that they would do well.

A yeast starter increases your total cell count to ensure that there is enough strong viable yeast to do the job in your beer. For every 24 hours your yeast cell count doubles(someone please correct me if i'm wrong)

Hope this helps

-BBS

__________________
----------------------------------------------------------------
Up Next: Dopplebock
Primary: European IPA
Secondary: Empty :(
Keg: Pumpkin Amber Ale, Skeeter Pee(why not?)
Conditioning: Cherry Canadian Blonde, Belgian Abbey Ale

frazier

Recipes 

If you are talking about dry yeast, then yes you would generally re-hydrate in plain (sanitized) water. You generally don't make a starter with dry yeast. The cell count is so high, you have a lot of flexibility - you could just sprinkle it into the wort and be fine. But you'll probably have a shorter lag time if you rehydrate.

BYO did an article last year, testing the theory that rehydrating prior to pitching caused less stress to the yeast. IIRC, the theory was more or less confirmed but the difference was small.

Cheers!

__________________
~
"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly." ~~ Mae West