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bobbyshambo21

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So, I'm kinda a noob, I will be brewing my 5th extract batch on Saturday. I made a starter for it last night. Generally, what I have seen is people referring to is 1000 mL starters and 2000 mL starters. I have a 2000 mL starter kit from NB and have used it once before. In their instructions they say for a 1000 mL starter kit to mix 650 mL of water with a 1/2 cup of DME. The 2000 mL starter kit is simply double. It sounds like this will only be a "pint" starter as they describe it.

Is the 650 mL starter referred to generally as a 1000 mL starter? or do I actually need 1000 mL of water starting out? or a bit more to account for loss in the boil? According to a the recipe I made on beersmith, I need a 1 L starter, so I'm wondering if I should build this up a second time or if I'm good to pitch. The OG of the recipe is 1.043.

Also, if I need 1/2 cup of DME for 650 mL, how much would I use for 1000 mL 3/4 cup? Whats a good ratio as a rule of thumb?
 
I've never made a starter, so I can't really give you advice like the gurus here... But I plan on making a starter for my next batch. I've been using mrmalty.com and yeadtcalc.com for my planning. They might be useful for you... ?
 
Yeah. I've been using yeastcalc.com. It looks like I should be close, depending on viability (I threw away the package so I don't know when it was manufactured). I think I will be just a bit shy on cell count though.
 
When people talk about a 1000mL starter, they're talking about 1000mL of wort.

If you only mad a 650mL starter, you will have less yeast than you would have with a full liter. Stepping it up to 1000mL would help fix that.

If you are losing significant volumes to boil, you should add more water to start out with.
 
It's easiest to go by weight - 1 g DME per 10 ml water, or in your case 100g DME for your 1 L starter.
 
So should I do another pint? or should I do 350 ml water and 1/4 cup of DME? That would make the total wort 1000 ml. I recently heard about over pitching and that it can produce off flavors, but I don't know how easy/ hard that is to do. I would say it's better to pitch more than you think you need versus less and stressing the fermentation? Thoughts?
 
What do you use to measure in grams? I don't think I have anything to do that around the house....
 
Kitchen scale. You can convert to ounces if you have one that measures that.
I don't know what you mean by another pint. A pint is about 475 ml. I thought you said you had a 2 L flask? Just do the whole 1 L together with 100 g (3.5 oz) DME.
 
I already made a 650 ml starter and it's finished, so I was going to build it up to make sure I have at least 1 L, but I have never built up, so I'm not sure how much wort to add to the second step up?
 
If you're going to be using liquid yeast much, think about making yourself a stirplate. It's not hard nor expensive.

If you take a look on Mr. Malty and use that drop-down menu, you can get lots more cells with the same sized starter if you spin it vs. doing a "simple starter".
 

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