Yeast Starter Confusion HELP!!

Hey all, I will be brewing a porter tomorrow. I am wondering If I need a starter? I am using wyeast 1968. Here is my recipe and Gravity numbers according to Beer Calculus:

OG 1.065
FG 1.020

COLOR 55* SRM

Mash Efficiency 75%

30.4 IBUs

6.0% ABV
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6.6 lbs. Light DME
2.00 lbs. 2-row malt
1.25 lbs. British Brown 70L
1.25 lbs. Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. Black Patent
0.25 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 80L
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 40L
0.25 lbs. Victory
0.25 lbs. Special B
0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt

1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 minutes
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes
2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5 minutes
1 oz. Willamette @ 1 minute

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash @ 156F for 45 minutes.

Mr. Malty says I need 2000 ml of liquid but that's the size of my flask! I am so confused. I need to make this starter RIGHT now seeing as I plan on brewing tomorrow around 5 pm. I think it has to sit for 24 hours right?

If I can get by without a starter please let me know. That would make things much easier at this point.

P.S.-should I mash longer? This is the first time I'm doing a mini mash. Thanks!

My yeast smack pack is in the fridge. Can I still brew tomorrow? According to John Palmer, You need to take the yeast out of the fridge 2 days before you brew.

A starter would be ideal. Once you get over 1.050 it's a good idea, and over 1.060 it's usually necessary. I'd brew up a 1l starter tonight and just pitch the whole thing into the beer tomorrow. Make sure to give it a good shake as often as you can between now and just prior to pitching, and aerate the wort really well, too.

If you can't get it together, you'll still brew a good beer, although it might have more yeast character than you planned. Ferment it on the low end if you can.

Thanks indigi! Dumb question but what is the DME to water ratio? Should I boil 1/2 cup of DME in 1 liter of water? Thanks again!

I go by weight - 4 oz of DME in a liter is what I use. I'm not sure how that converts to volume.

sorry, one last question. Do I need to smack the yeast pack and let it swell (takes hours right?) or can i just cut it open and dump it into my starter? Thanks for all your help!

Smack it and put it on top of your fridge, or some other nice, warm area (but not hot!), and let it sit while you get the starter ready. It doesn't always take hours, so it might be fully swelled up by the time you're ready to pitch, but even if it did, the smack pack has lots of helpful nutrients and such to get the yeast ready to ferment, which can only be helpful if you need a quick start.


edit: One last thing - looking at your grain bill, have you already purchased all the ingredients? Either way, though, you may want to think about dropping some and eating the 5 or 6 bucks - you've got a real kitchen sink recipe there. Victory and biscuit, 80L and 70L crystal, 120L and Special B, and I think the 40 is worthless altogether. Maybe take it over to another forum and get some more direct input, but you've got a bunch of ingredients that do essentially the same things.

Yes, I already bought the ingredients. What do you think I should do? I was gonna just go for it and brew it as is. What should I drop?

If it means anything, My favorite porter of all time is Olfabrikken Porter.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/olfabrikken-porter/52649/

Yes, I already bought the ingredients. What do you think I should do? I was gonna just go for it and brew it as is. What should I drop?

If it means anything, My favorite porter of all time is Olfabrikken Porter.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/olfabrikken-porter/52649/

If you are curious you can check out the threads below. My porter recipe has gotten a ton of response and has caused me MAJOR confusion. Some people have said it looks delicious while others say it looks stupid!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/question-about-extract-porter-recipe-191823/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/porter-recipe-195366/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/wyeast-1968-porter-195438/

If you read through these threads you can see the progression of the recipe and you'll see where I'm at with this thing! haha!

It doesn't look stupid, just... overenthusiastic I'd suggest that you definitely drop either the Special B or the Crystal 120, and one of the caramel malts. Maybe even the biscuit. British Brown is already going to give you some toasty, biscuity flavors, so no need to triple-dip with biscuit and Victory.

Since you're going with extract, there's already going to be a higher amount of unfermentables than you'd probably expect, and if you're adding in all these unfermentable sugars with the specialty malts, you could wind up with an over sweet, flabby beer. I'd actually recommend adding some brown sugar to lighten it up a little bit - maybe half a pound.

Cool! I'll give it a try. Let's try this again:

6.6 lbs. Light DME

2.00 lbs. 2-row malt
1.25 lbs. British Brown 70L
1.25 lbs. Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. Black Patent
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 80L
0.25 lbs. Victory
0.25 lbs. Special B
0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt
1/2 lbs. Brown Sugar

1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 minutes
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes
2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5 minutes
1 oz. Willamette @ 1 minute

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash @ 156F for 45 minutes.

How about this? Now my hops need to change right? I am having trouble modifying this. I can't decide which to take out, the biscuit or the victory. Mind telling me what you would do if you had these ingredients? Also, Where would you add the brown sugar? I'd really appreciate any more help you can offer. Thanks again for your time.

I'm going for something that is sweet, caramel, a touch of dark fruits and brown sugar, not too bitter but also not overly sweet.

My favorite porters are:

Olfabrikken porter
Bell's porter
founders porter

Bonus question: Just for fun would do you think would happen if I brewed my original recipe? I know the grain bill is complex but do you think it would turn out bad?

Personally, I'd take out the biscuit because I haven't used Victory on my own yet. It's really up to you, flip a coin. You hops should be fine - it's very hop forward for a porter, but that can work out well. Storm King is one of my favorite stouts and is really aggressive, I think they even dry hop it.

I don't think your original grain bill would turn out bad, just muddled and confused. There'd be no aspect of it you could go "oooh, that's what this beer is." You can make a complex beer with one or two different grains if you brew it right.

The Special B and 80L caramel will take care of dark fruits and caramel, and it'll be sweet enough. Add the sugar in the last 15 minutes of the boil. Founder's porter is more of a sweet stout than a porter imo, I'm sure some would disagree.

Thanks a lot! I'll play around with it and come up with something. I'll let you know how this one turns out.

I just checked on my yeast starter and there is already a THICK layer of yeast settled on the bottom of the flask. Is this ok? How often should I give the flask a good swirl?

Sorry to freak out! This is my first starter.

As often as you can stand.

Ok, so here is the final recipe. I do have a few concerns though. I put the recipe into Beer calculus and this is what it spit out:

OG 1.086
FG 1.022

COLOR 47* SRM

Mash Efficiency 75%

22.1 IBUs

8.5 % ABV


6.6 lbs. Light DME

2.00 lbs. 2-row malt
1.25 lbs. British Brown 70L
1.25 lbs. Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. Black Patent
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 80L
0.25 lbs. Victory
0.25 lbs. Special B

1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 minutes
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes
8 oz. Brown Sugar @ 15 minutes
2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5 minutes
1 oz. Willamette @ 1 minute

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash @ 156F for 45 minutes.

Look at my OG!!! Isn't that a little TOO HIGH?! my OG was 1.065 last time because I forgot to add the 2-row (people have told me I need the 2-row in there for some conversion reasons). Also, is that enough IBU's? I have 5 ounces of hops in this porter and that's all the IBU's I get? Don't get me wrong, I don't want a super bitter beer but I don't want a porter that is sickly sweet.

I hope this will turn out ok...

I know I've been asking a ton of questions but I would greatly appreciate any more insight, seeing as I'm planning to brew this thing tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again!