First attemp at a starter...mistake made?

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gonzoflick

gonzoflick

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Brewed my first three batches of beer. .. CHECK

Got my best friend into brewing.....CHECK

Decided to make my first starter w/ his first homebrew to make fermentation gloryous...CHECK

Boiled 1 cup DME in 4 cups water....CHECK

Chilled to 75f..................................CHECK

Pitched braverian wheat ale yeast...CHECK

aerated in 1liter picth vessle.....CHECK

Decided the airlock would dip down into karesun when fermentation started...CHECK

Emptied out about 1cup liquid.......CHECK

ohh ****... how much yeast did I just empty out.

2 hours later there was 2mm approx sediment on the bottom.... was that from DME settling or yeast sediment..

there was also a few foamies on the surface..

Did i kill his yeastcount.. Should I be OKAY?

Thanks in advance for the replies...
 
Hey, I've had my issues with starters, but I don't think you guys are going to have a problem. Especially if you are using yeast from a previous batch? You'll have tons of yeast to work with.
 
just remembrer.... you can ferment a batch of beer starting with a single cell. my guess is that you have learned from you mistake... you deserve a home brew. GOOD JOB!!!
JJ
 
Ok, help me understand - are you SUPPOSED to pour off any liquid before pithcing a starter?

Made a starter for my first batch last weekend. Boiled one cup light DME in 2 cups of water (had my first boilover, incidentally - grrr). Was working with dry yeast, so I bloomed that as per my usual protocal in warm water. Cooled the wort to pitching temp, aerated extensively (shook for about five minutes), poured into 25oz bottle, added the bloomed yeast, covered with tinfoil. I was planning to use an airlock, but someone must have been playing with my bung - I mean - uhm - I couldn't find my bung, so I covered in foil as many have recommended.

Had great yeast activity, got lots of yeast mutliplication, day and a half later I pitched by first gently shaking the bottle (a little less aggressively than I would shake a White Labs vial) to get the yeast back in suspention, then pouring into my cooled wort.

There was no reason for me to pour off the liquid first, was there? That's just beer at this point, isn't it?

Had a real quick start, and the airlock was bubbling very aggressively by the next morning. I don't *think* I did anything wrong, did I?
 
the_bird said:
Ok, help me understand - are you SUPPOSED to pour off any liquid before pithcing a starter?

Made a starter for my first batch last weekend. Boiled one cup light DME in 2 cups of water (had my first boilover, incidentally - grrr). Was working with dry yeast, so I bloomed that as per my usual protocal in warm water. Cooled the wort to pitching temp, aerated extensively (shook for about five minutes), poured into 25oz bottle, added the bloomed yeast, covered with tinfoil. I was planning to use an airlock, but someone must have been playing with my bung - I mean - uhm - I couldn't find my bung, so I covered in foil as many have recommended.

Had great yeast activity, got lots of yeast mutliplication, day and a half later I pitched by first gently shaking the bottle (a little less aggressively than I would shake a White Labs vial) to get the yeast back in suspention, then pouring into my cooled wort.

There was no reason for me to pour off the liquid first, was there? That's just beer at this point, isn't it?

Had a real quick start, and the airlock was bubbling very aggressively by the next morning. I don't *think* I did anything wrong, did I?
Click to expand...

Why make a starter for dried yeast? Seems like more work than it's worth.
 
You can do it either way.

(And you really don't need a starter with dry yeast, BTW, because you are pitching way more cells with dry than with liquid.)

Most people continually aerate their starters, which is good for yeast growth but also good for making crappy-tasting oxidized beer. If the starter is small, like your 1 pint starter, then who cares: one pint of sub-optimal beer in a 5 gallon batch is not a big deal.

But if you really want to boost yeast counts, then we're talking about a larger starter. Now you're up to levels of dilution in a five gallon batch that are probably unacceptable if you pitch the whole thing. That's why you'd want to ferment the starter out and chill it to drop the yeast out of suspension. Then you pour or siphon off the unwanted crappy beer and pitch the yeast slurry.
 
Practice, mostly.

I had planned to save the yeast from my last batch, but didn't have time (babe took forever to get to sleep that night, I only had time to rack to secondary). Figured it was good practice, something I wanted to get under my belt. It did seem to quicken the time to get the fermenation going, anyway - I was certainly pitching more yeast that had I *not* made a starter.
 

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