I was hoping I could go through my whole first brew session without asking a stupid newbie question, but after searching for the past half hour I've come across a lot of different information and I hope I'm not making this more complicated than I need to.
Anyway, I planned on doing my first brew in about 24-36 hours (Friday night or Saturday morning). I have just a basic ale kit from midwest supplies that uses only LME. In addition, I have a Wyeast Activator pack. I know that for the very first brew I probably should have just kept things simple and used dry yeast, but oh well.
So I was looking at making a starter tonight but obviously most of the instructions in the wiki and in books talk about using DME. I don't have any. I saw some people mention that you could use about 2/3 cup of LME with 2 cups of water. And many posts are saying you should have at least 1L or more of starter. Ok, no problem, but then I realized the only LME I have is what came with the kit. So would it be ok to use some of that, or is that going to create problems later on when doing the boil and using less LME?
I realize that the activator pack says you can just pitch it directly, but I figure I should just get in the habit of making a starter from day one.
So am I just making this harder than it has to be? Should I just say screw the starter and pitch the activator pack directly, or can I just use some of the LME from the kit with a few cups of water? Or should I really be shooting for a larger starter anyway and just wait until I buy some extra DME and do that next time?
Just want to get into good habits from the start and increase my chances of making a most excellent beer. Thanks.
Anyway, I planned on doing my first brew in about 24-36 hours (Friday night or Saturday morning). I have just a basic ale kit from midwest supplies that uses only LME. In addition, I have a Wyeast Activator pack. I know that for the very first brew I probably should have just kept things simple and used dry yeast, but oh well.
So I was looking at making a starter tonight but obviously most of the instructions in the wiki and in books talk about using DME. I don't have any. I saw some people mention that you could use about 2/3 cup of LME with 2 cups of water. And many posts are saying you should have at least 1L or more of starter. Ok, no problem, but then I realized the only LME I have is what came with the kit. So would it be ok to use some of that, or is that going to create problems later on when doing the boil and using less LME?
I realize that the activator pack says you can just pitch it directly, but I figure I should just get in the habit of making a starter from day one.
So am I just making this harder than it has to be? Should I just say screw the starter and pitch the activator pack directly, or can I just use some of the LME from the kit with a few cups of water? Or should I really be shooting for a larger starter anyway and just wait until I buy some extra DME and do that next time?
Just want to get into good habits from the start and increase my chances of making a most excellent beer. Thanks.