yeast starters

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jb3218

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I plan on making a yeast starter and was wondering how long I can keep it in the fridge before I pitch it? I wanted to know if it will lose cells over two or three days. I have a stir plate and planned on using yeast calc. so if I have to increase cells to account for lost cells over time it should not be a problem. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I plan on making a yeast starter and was wondering how long I can keep it in the fridge before I pitch it? I wanted to know if it will lose cells over two or three days. I have a stir plate and planned on using yeast calc. so if I have to increase cells to account for lost cells over time it should not be a problem. Any help would be appreciated.

2-3 days will not be a problem.
 
It will lose viability over time, same as what happens to WyYeast or White labs. It probably won't be a massive dropoff but there will be some.
 
Thanks for the tips. Two more questions. First, should the stir plate stay on for a full 24 hours and second, is there a way to open white labs vials without the yeast shooting out or overflowing?
 
Lol good questions.

Yes, let the stir plate stay on for at least 24hrs.

And lol ya there is a trick to white labs. That's all I use. I crack the seal open and let it warm from a refrigeration temp to room temp and most the co2 comes out while it warms up. (make sure to store it upright with the cap open a shot glass works good lol) After it warms up I will tighten the cap and shake, then open the cap again slowly. Repeat a couple times with shaking then slowly opening to mix the yeast in the fluid and you should be fine.
 
Thanks for the tips folks! The last two batches I made I used dry yeast and they both fermented fast and apparently did not eat all of the sugar because both beers taste sweet. This is why I want to switch to liquid yeast. Thanks again.
 
Thanks for the tips folks! The last two batches I made I used dry yeast and they both fermented fast and apparently did not eat all of the sugar because both beers taste sweet. This is why I want to switch to liquid yeast. Thanks again.

There's no reason that would be true for dry versus liquid yeast provided you pitched the right amount of yeast. What was your OG? How much did you pitch? Temperature at pitching? Aeration? Fermentation temperature?
 
And what were the dry strains? Some will not chew down on the sugars as much as others. Lots of factors involved here, least of which is dry vs wet yeast!
 
The dry yeasts were Danstar Nottingham and Danstar Windsor and both were 11gram packs. O.G. for both were 1.042 and both had a F.G. of 1.016. They both fermented vigorously for about a day and a half and then stopped. Ferm. at 67 deg. Made both batches one day apart. I did a small starter as per instructions on the back of the packs. I believe it was about one cup of water to one pack of yeast 15 min. before pitching. No idea what went wrong.
 
Looking at your numbers u r probably close to where u were going to be. I've done big beers ie over 1.060 and have only rehydrated my yeast and not really had any problems.
 
I guess one of the problems I had is that my abv was only about 3.4 and since I used 6 lbs. LME and 1 lb. of crystal 20L, I thought the abv would be higher. I'm not looking for a high gravity beer but I just thought it should have been higher.
 
How long did you let the fermentation go? You said they fermented for a day and a half, this was only the "vigorous" part of fermentation. The beer can ferment for quite a few days after this as well. How many days after pitching did you get your 1.016 reading?
 
I fermented in the bucket for 7 days then took reading which was 1.016 then racked to carboy for one month and took another reading. F.G. was the same.
 
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