I've never made a starter or used liquid yeast so while I was at my LHBS I picked up a smack pack thinking that would be good my LHBS said I would be fine too. Now I'm looking on HBT and everyone is using a starter. Will it mess anything up if I don't because I'm not exactly sure how to make one. Thanks any help is appreciated.
Smack pack help
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dneubeck85
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I've had great results using the smack pack yeasts. Smack it, pitch it and enjoy your beer!!
Making a starter is easy, 1 gram of DME per 10 ml of water. Boil for a couple mins to sterilize, cool, pitch yeast, swirl the starter as often as possible. After ~2 days, it'll be done, you can pitch the whole thing, or chill, gently pour off "beer" and pitch just the yeast.
first off, congrats on doing some research before jumping into things 
what kind of wort will you be pitching this into? specifically, what is the batch size and what is its original gravity (OG)? if your batch is small enough and/or the gravity low enough, a starter may not be needed.
making a starter isn't very hard. in a nutshell, a starter is a mini-batch of beer used to boost cell count. if you've made beer before, you've noticed that after fermentation there is a thick layer of yeast at the bottom of the fermentation vessel (FV) - the yeast multiplied as they fermented the beer. this is exactly what you're doing in a starter: instead of throwing the yeast into a massive amount of wort that it won't be able to ferment because it doesn't have enough cells (and won't multiply sufficiently to get the job done), you start it off in a "baby pool" that it definitely can handle. you add your yeast to a small amount of wort, aerate well & often, and let the yeast grow. then you put it in the fridge for 24 hours, let the yeast drop out to the bottom (aka flocculate), pour off most of the spent beer, swirl up the yeast slurry at the bottom with a little left-over wort, and pitch.
how to make a starter:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-make-yeast-starter-video-177635/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-76101/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-updated-340261/
finally, use www.mrmalty.com to calculate how big a starter you need.
what kind of wort will you be pitching this into? specifically, what is the batch size and what is its original gravity (OG)? if your batch is small enough and/or the gravity low enough, a starter may not be needed.
making a starter isn't very hard. in a nutshell, a starter is a mini-batch of beer used to boost cell count. if you've made beer before, you've noticed that after fermentation there is a thick layer of yeast at the bottom of the fermentation vessel (FV) - the yeast multiplied as they fermented the beer. this is exactly what you're doing in a starter: instead of throwing the yeast into a massive amount of wort that it won't be able to ferment because it doesn't have enough cells (and won't multiply sufficiently to get the job done), you start it off in a "baby pool" that it definitely can handle. you add your yeast to a small amount of wort, aerate well & often, and let the yeast grow. then you put it in the fridge for 24 hours, let the yeast drop out to the bottom (aka flocculate), pour off most of the spent beer, swirl up the yeast slurry at the bottom with a little left-over wort, and pitch.
how to make a starter:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-make-yeast-starter-video-177635/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-76101/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-updated-340261/
finally, use www.mrmalty.com to calculate how big a starter you need.
It's a 5 gallon batch and the OG will be around 1.070. I did buy 2 packs of wyeast 1056 after putting the recipe in beer smith it calle for 2 packs dry yeast. So I figured without a starter to smack packs would be good any input would be great thanks
Since you're hesitant to make a starter at this point, you'll probably be fine pitching the two packs of yeast. I used to do that before I started making starters.
I do recommend that you learn to make a starter, not just for the purpose of pitching enough yeast, but because those smack packs are expensive, especially when you're buying 2-3 per batch.
Sweetcell gave great instructions, i used my first one in the last batch i did, it was incredibly easy, and i got amazing fermentation within a few hours of pitching the starter.
I bought a 2L erlenmeyer flask from my LHBS for like $17 and boiled the wort for my starter right in that (on a glass topped stove), then let it ferment in the flask for 2 days as well. You can do it in anything really though, i like the flask because it's only one thing to clean up.
I bought a 2L erlenmeyer flask from my LHBS for like $17 and boiled the wort for my starter right in that (on a glass topped stove), then let it ferment in the flask for 2 days as well. You can do it in anything really though, i like the flask because it's only one thing to clean up.
assuming the packs are relatively fresh (less than 3 weeks old) you should be ok. you'll be underpitching but not horribly so.
BTW a pack of dry yeast has 2 to 3 times more cells than a pack or vial of liquid (can be even more, depending on age/viability). so you can't substitute 1-for-1.
+1 to learning how to make starters, they are easy and if you continue to use liquid strains you will and your beer will be much better off!
To get an idea visit Www.yeastcalc.com, plug in the numbers and you'll see.
Starters do require a little advance planning especially if you need to step them up but it's all in the process of making great beer so its fun!
To get an idea visit Www.yeastcalc.com, plug in the numbers and you'll see.
Starters do require a little advance planning especially if you need to step them up but it's all in the process of making great beer so its fun!
