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**scrapes** · 02-13-2013, 12:50 AM

Another first for me, a yeast starter. The prep went well, to much water in the beeker, I had to grab the old baster and suck some out as the boil kicked in. I had a baby boil over.

Getting it down to the temp range was a process, down, to much, up, to much, finally in the range 70-80, Liquid yeast in and now the wait for bubble.

Seems like there is a great deal of potential for infection, checking the temp. I sanitized everything from my hands to the foil to the thermometer, repeatedly. Fingers crossed.

PastorofMuppets · 02-13-2013, 12:57 AM

boil your starter wort in the pan not the flask if you are.
Then cool the pan in a ice bath. Keep your flask sanitized. Use a sanitized funnel to put wort into flask when its room temp, then pitch the yeast into the flask. Cover with a square of foil that has sanitizer sprayed on it. swirl as often as you walk by or use a stir plate.

pain free.

**Hackwood** · 02-13-2013, 02:19 AM

Keep a 5 gallon bucket of Star San RIGHT in the area of where you are making your starter(or brewing for that matter.) Toss everything that is to be used post boil in the bucket and wash and dunk your hands in the Star San constantly. I'll wash my hands up to 30 times during a 6 hour brew day, sanitizing almost as much. Same with bottling or anything else.

**scrapes** · 02-13-2013, 10:54 AM

Holy YEASTIES!, woke up this morning to see wort all over the counter. Quick clean up, star sanning everything. Plug the bung in the beaker......bubble out again. A quick grab of the 3/8 hose, out with the airlock, in with the hose after a good star san spray and dip. The other end goes into the gallon of star san.

Any issues I should think about, with all this action.

**AnOldUR** · 02-13-2013, 11:05 AM

What gravity is your starter wort?
What is the volume of your starter and how big is the vessel you're fermenting it in?
Do you have an airlock on your starter?

**unionrdr** · 02-13-2013, 11:21 AM

I was watching an old episode of Home Brewer TV,&he talked about starters. He mentioned using sanitized foil ofer the end of the flask so air could get in. I did it that way & it worked fine. But I did hafe one krausen overflow. Got soak & scrub the flask now. Starters make a lot of sticky stuff to clean off. Good thing the flask is pyrex.

**deadfall** · 02-13-2013, 11:40 AM

I've been using Growlers for my starters. I just put a peice of sanitized tin foil over the top of it.

**unionrdr** · 02-13-2013, 11:54 AM

Yeah,the foil did seem to work just fine.

Minky · 02-13-2013, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PastorofMuppets

boil your starter wort in the pan not the flask if you are.
Then cool the pan in a ice bath. Keep your flask sanitized. Use a sanitized funnel to put wort into flask when its room temp, then pitch the yeast into the flask.

Just be careful using this method. Make sure you thoroughly wipe the ice-bath water off the outside of the pan before pouring. I would also spray some Star-san on the side of the pan you'll be pouring from in case some of the wort curls around the edge of the pan as you pour.

I find it much simpler to boil in the flask while watching burner temps carefully.

**unionrdr** · 02-13-2013, 12:30 PM

We have a small ss sauce pan with glass lid & pouring spouts that I use for starter wort & priming solutions. Works fine & no infections over the couple years I've been using it.