Small starter mistake. What should I do?

I was going to brew a Hefe today with WLP300 (first time using a liquid yeast) so I made a 1L starter with 6oz of DME yesterday and it's looking good.

The mistake I made was using light malt extract for the starter. Shouldn't I have used the wheat extract? I understand that there's a certain percentage of malt in the wheat DME and I don't want to throw off the proper balance for the style.
Should I wait till tomorrow to brew, decant, then remove most of the liquid. or should I relax and just add the whole starter to the wort?

Another question to avoid another mistake.
There is almost 1/2 a gallon of starter. Should I end up with 4 1/2 gal after the boil and add the starter to make the 5 gal, or should i just add the starter and end up with 5 1/2 gal of wort.

I know I'm probably being a little to anal but I'm starting to make good beer and I want to keep the ball rolling.

Thanks for your help
CB

That's a lot of DME for a 1L starter. I'd add some water to it. I usually do mine around 1.030. I think you'll be fine with regular DME. I would let it ferment out, then cold crash it and decant, then just pitch the slurry.

+1, I just brewed a Hefe on Monday; the recipie calls for one pound of extra light DME but I went ahead and made the starter (using the same DME), cold crash, decant, and just used pitched the slurry. By doing so you also avoid the volume issue (pitch the slurry into 5 gal of wort).

That said, I do not think you would throw anything off by pitching the whole starter, as 6 oz of DME would have little impact on the style, as you are probably using 5-6 pounds of wheat extract.

Wheat extracts run 40-50% wheat, so you've got a surplus of 3 oz of barley malt, max. I say max, because much of the malt was consumed by the yeast as they multiplied.

should i just add the starter and end up with 5 1/2 gal of wort.

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yes

WAdamC said:

That's a lot of DME for a 1L starter. I'd add some water to it. I usually do mine around 1.030. I think you'll be fine with regular DME. I would let it ferment out, then cold crash it and decant, then just pitch the slurry.

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Beersmith is putting the gravity with 6oz of DME to .5 gal of water at 1.033. Should I still add water? Do you think 48 hours is long enough to decant without loosing too much yeast?

david_42 said:

Wheat extracts run 40-50% wheat, so you've got a surplus of 3 oz of barley malt, max. I say max, because much of the malt was consumed by the yeast as they multiplied.



yes

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AHHHH
cool thanks

SpaceportBP said:

+1, I just brewed a Hefe on Monday; the recipie calls for one pound of extra light DME but I went ahead and made the starter (using the same DME), cold crash, decant, and just used pitched the slurry. By doing so you also avoid the volume issue (pitch the slurry into 5 gal of wort).

That said, I do not think you would throw anything off by pitching the whole starter, as 6 oz of DME would have little impact on the style, as you are probably using 5-6 pounds of wheat extract.

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Thanks, The recipe only has 2.75 lb of DME the rest is mashed wheat and malt to end up at 1.051

The recipe I came up is on the high end of the style with the IBU's and the ABV so it looks like the extra starter will just be more beer without throwing it off too bad

Keep posting on how yours turns out. Mine was my first Hefe; I used Bill's Paulaner clone recipe here but then "boosted" some ingredients to push it up to the area between a Hefe and a Weizenbock. My final numbers are OG=1.062, SRM=12 and only 10 IBU. It has been fermenting very steadlily since Monday; and though still bubbling I could not wait and took a sample/reading yesterday. The gravity was down to 1.020, and I do not believe the SRM caculation as it is a very bright yellow color. The taste, well sweet wheat bananna I could have drank it from the pail . .. !

Good luck on yours!

Rover said:

Beersmith is putting the gravity with 6oz of DME to .5 gal of water at 1.033. Should I still add water? Do you think 48 hours is long enough to decant without loosing too much yeast?

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Is it 1 Liter, or a half gallon? 6oz is good for a half gallon.

SpaceportBP said:

Keep posting on how yours turns out. Mine was my first Hefe; I used Bill's Paulaner clone recipe here but then "boosted" some ingredients to push it up to the area between a Hefe and a Weizenbock. My final numbers are OG=1.062, SRM=12 and only 10 IBU. It has been fermenting very steadlily since Monday; and though still bubbling I could not wait and took a sample/reading yesterday. The gravity was down to 1.020, and I do not believe the SRM caculation as it is a very bright yellow color. The taste, well sweet wheat bananna I could have drank it from the pail . .. !

Good luck on yours!

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Good luck with yours as well!
This will also be my first Hefe batch
It'll be my second partial mash attempt. I know there is no real need to mash any grains when it comes to a good Hefe but I'm really enjoying the added involvement with the raw ingredients. My first attempt at it was an Amber that I will be bottling next Monday that tastes amazing right out of the primary (also my first real temp control batch). I used Death Brewers technique and got 85% efficiency! I will try and do the same thing tomorrow morning with this batch. This is what I will be working on starting at 6:00AM tomorrow

2.75 lb Wheat Dry Extract
3.00 lb Wheat Malt
2.00 lb Pilsner Malt
0.75 oz Hallertauer (60 min)
1 Pkgs WLP300

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051
Est Final Gravity: 1.013
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.89
Bitterness: 13.0 IBU
Est Color: 5.3 SRM

I plan on fermenting this one at 68F to try and get a little less banana and see what happens.
I'll try and start a new thread with some pics and I'll keep it posted

WAdamC said:

Is it 1 Liter, or a half gallon? 6oz is good for a half gallon.

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Brain fart:cross:

it's more like a 1/2 gal starter

sorry for the confusion