Starter, started 4 days ago. Will it still be good?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
bmckee56

bmckee56

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
911
Reaction score
4
Location
Coraopolis, PA (Near Pittsburgh)
I made up a White Labs California Ale starter (001) using 1qt. of water, 1/2 cup light DME and 1/4tsp. yeast nutrient and it worked nicely for three days. I got behind on my schedule and can not make my intended brew until this coming Tuesday. The starter will then be 6 days old. I placed the starter into my refirgerator yesterday afternoon in hopes of saving it until then. My thought is to boil up another 1qt. of water, 1/2 cup light DME and 1/4tsp. of yeast nutrient, cool it then add it back to the starter in the refigerator. Should I draw off the wort above the yeast in the current starter before adding the new wort? Will it hurt anything to just add it directly into the starter and give it 24 hours to work back up, then add it to my brew? Or can I use the current starter without having to do any of the things above?

Thanks for the assistance in advance.

Salute! :mug:
 
I'd draw the spent wort off the old one before adding the new starter, otherwise you will end up with 1/2g of very low gravity starter. I'd also use about 3/4 cup of DME per qt, which should give you a gravity fairly close to 1.040

-a.
 
bmckee56 said:
I made up a White Labs California Ale starter (001) using 1qt. of water, 1/2 cup light DME and 1/4tsp. yeast nutrient and it worked nicely for three days. I got behind on my schedule and can not make my intended brew until this coming Tuesday. The starter will then be 6 days old. I placed the starter into my refirgerator yesterday afternoon in hopes of saving it until then. My thought is to boil up another 1qt. of water, 1/2 cup light DME and 1/4tsp. of yeast nutrient, cool it then add it back to the starter in the refigerator. Should I draw off the wort above the yeast in the current starter before adding the new wort? Will it hurt anything to just add it directly into the starter and give it 24 hours to work back up, then add it to my brew? Or can I use the current starter without having to do any of the things above?

Thanks for the assistance in advance.

Salute! :mug:
Click to expand...

If you are brewing a beer over 1.055, I would whip up another wort starter and decant the original starter's yeast slurry into that, the idea to pitch the newer starter at full krausen. If you are brewing a beer less than 1.055, I think you will be fine using the yeast at the bottom of your original starter. Just pull it out of the fridge 4-5 hours ahead of time to warm the liquid to room temp. Decant most of the spent wort and then pitch the slurry into your batch of beer.

Cheers!
:mug:
 

Similar threads

H
Yeast starter not starting
Replies
16
Views
1K
HB2112
H
Zippy123
Yeast starter for pressure lager (~68 F ferm)
Replies
10
Views
651
rallenhall
rallenhall
R
DIY Propper/Fast Pitch?
Replies
4
Views
525
hottpeper13
H
khannon
About to can some wort for starters and I had a thought...
Replies
4
Views
388
khannon
khannon
T
WLP500 Dilemma
Replies
10
Views
749
The_Idiot
T
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top