Need help making 1st Starter

Hello all,

I just ordered my second brew kit, I currently have caribou slobber in my primary. I'm racking it to my secondary next wee to make room for my second kit T-can & Bearcats Wheaten Beatdown. I wanted to get another quicker batch going in the primary that will bottle at roughly the same time as the caribou slobber in order to begin my rotation. My issue is that I have never used the liquid yeast Wyeast, and I'm concerned about learning to make a yeast starter. I ordered the Wyeast upgrade not realizing it was a liquid yeast upgrade. Can I pitch the liquid yeast just as I did the dry yeast? I'm very happy with how my first batch fermented and.thedry....yeastyeast,yeastnow it's time to learn a new

You can just pitch it in but making a starter is better and easy to do. Just get an erlenmeyer flask from ur LHBS but u don't have to have one. Boil 1000 ml of water and then add 100 grams of DME to it. Then pour into the flask or a sanitized water jug and give it a quick ice bath. When its cooled pour the yeast in and shake the flask whenever u walk by it. After about 24-36 hours stick it in the fridge let all the yeast settle out an then pour out the wort keeping the yeast in the flask. Next make ur beer and pour the yeast starter in when finished.

I always use the liquid yeast. If I'm pitching to a 5 gallon batch I don't make a starter. If I'm pitching to a 10 gallon batch I'll boil 2.5 cups of water, add 2 oz of DME, cool and add the yeast at least 24 hours prior to brewing. Make sure you shake the yeast in really well and get a lot of foam to be sure the wort is aerated. Cover with aluminum foil and don't mess with an airlock. You want O2 for the yeast to multiply. From what I've read, the usual formula of 2 cups water to 4 oz DME is just too concentrated and works against yeast growth.

I never bother cold crashing and decanting the wort off the yeast. I just don't see the point.

Frogmanx82 said:

I always use the liquid yeast. If I'm pitching to a 5 gallon batch I don't make a starter. If I'm pitching to a 10 gallon batch I'll boil 2.5 cups of water, add 2 oz of DME, cool and add the yeast at least 24 hours prior to brewing. Make sure you shake the yeast in really well and get a lot of foam to be sure the wort is aerated. Cover with aluminum foil and don't mess with an airlock. You want O2 for the yeast to multiply. From what I've read, the usual formula of 2 cups water to 4 oz DME is just too concentrated and works against yeast growth.

I never bother cold crashing and decanting the wort off the yeast. I just don't see the point.

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Neither do I but sometimes When making a big starter (2L) for a high gravity beer it just seems like so much extra liquid. But I do it anyway no time to cold crash!

I don't make starters.. but I probably should... but what I did is I just left my smack pack on the counter (smacked) overnight. Worked great for my english bitter. But what you will hrre from all of the senior brewers is do the yeast starter. It ferments faster, cleaner, and healthier. Less off flavors from yeast.

You make it sound easy, and it probably is once u get used to the process. Do I need to purchase a scale and graduated cylinder for getting the amounts correct, or can I just purchase what I need. The yeast that remains in the beaker after you pour off the wort is in a thick liquid form that can be poured into the carboy? Do I have to worry about it running down the neck of the carboy, or should I try to pour it right onto the wort? BTW thank you for your initial response

Thank you all for your input, any, and all advice is greatly appreciated. FYI I am brewing only 5 gal. Batches at this time, so maybe I won't need a starter this time around, but I would still love to learn how without ruining my next batch. Also, the caribou slobber seems to have a slight smell of green apples or something, it was worse during the beginning of fermentation, but has faded a lot, I'm one week into fermentation now but there is still some of that smell. I'm concerned as the first days of fermentation were very active and I almost had a blow off situation as I had the carboy on the concrete floor of my furnace room. Realizing that the Kroisen was climbing the carboy quickly I moved the carboy to a cooler part of the basement to help prevent the blow off from happening. Once fermentation slowed I moved it back to the warmer room as it seemed that fermentation may have slowed too much. In the furnace room the carboy temp reads 67-68 degrees, where as when I moved to the cooler side of the basement my temp readings were about 62-64 degrees.

When pouring the starter into ur Carboy u leave enough wort on top of the yeast so that u can shake the flask up mixing the yeast cake and them pour it into ur Carboy. I was scared on my first one too but it's so easy kinda like making a mini beer. Here is a simple pic I got from this site on how to make a starter.

After chilling leave about an inch of wort in the flask shake up the wort and yeast and pour into Carboy using a funnel. If you don't have a scale u should get one as u progress u r gonna want to make the same recipes over and over again. I have a simple digital scale from the cooking section at Walmart. It helps a lot going by weight is more exact then using volumes.

I use starters on my 5 gallon batches, I love having the fermentation done in half the time. I use the John Palmer recipe of 2 cups water to 1/2 cup DME, boil it, pitch it and the yeast into my flask on the stir plate, let it spin for roughly 2 1/2 days, and it works like a charm.

Personally, I would get a blow-off tube before I started moving my carboy around on a concrete floor. They're messy when they break.

Wow, I love the comic book style illustration, and your advice is reassuring. I guess I need a couple new pieces of equipment to make this happen the right way.

Take a look at the pitching calculator on Mrmalty.com.

Why does making a starter, and adding the liquid yeast help speed up fermentation, and by how much is a 5 gal batch sped up?

Yup, made my first starter last night. Basically just a mini-boil and pitch.

While I do have a scale, I think for the point of a starter the exact qty isn't critical. I'd seen recommendations for starter wort from 1.020 to 1.040, so I made 1.030 out of indecision.

On my scale, 1 cup of light DME equals ~4.75 oz by weight. So, in the case of going for 1.030 starter wort, 1/4 cup would work for about 14oz water, 1/2 cup for about 28oz, etc.

Making a starter creates a greater yeast count as they eat the starter they multiply which gives u more yeast during the actual fermentation. When making a stronger abv beer u need a starter cuz the high alcohol could kill off some of the yeast so u need the extra yeast. A dry yeast has more yeast in it then the liquid yeast that is why u don't need it with dry.

I'm brewing tomorrow here is a pic of my starter I just took out of the fridge. The second pic is the bottom of the flask with the yeast cake that's what ur gonna shake up and dump into ur primary.

I do like the flasks, but really any glass container covered with some foil is fine and the measurement isn't all that precise. In fact I'm sure there would be some debate about the best dme to water ratio. 2 oz DME to 2 or 3 cups of water is a good range for me. The only reason I use a starter is it allows me to use one vial of yeast for a 10 gallon batch. For a 5 gallon batch of 5 or 6% alcohol it's really not necessary.

I'm not sure I understand the issue with high gravity beers. The alcohol comes into the process well after the yeast is established anyway. In fact too much yeast with that much food seems to me like an issue for your airlock.

With a high abv if u don't have enough yeast you won't reach ur FG.

Does the yeast have to be warmed up to room temp before pitching it after you take it out of the fridge?

geim32 said:

With a high abv if u don't have enough yeast you won't reach ur FG.

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Learned this the hard way on my imperial coconut stout....

I washed some yeast from my last batch of imperial nut brown ale so i'm ready for the next couple batches....:rockin:

I made the jump to doing starters for all my batches and it has helped quite a bit. They're simple to make. Do you need a scale? No. 10g to 100ml is the ratio I have always used, and I have a scale, but if you get close and the yeast ferments and multiplies, you're better off than without a starter. I have never bothered with cold crashing and pouring-off my starter... but to each their own.

i8beer said:

Does the yeast have to be warmed up to room temp before pitching it after you take it out of the fridge?

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Yes you want the yeast and wort about the same temp

It is a good idea to decant big starters. Think about it, you shake it up or use a stirplate to keep the yeast in suspension and introduce oxygen and it is really a small beer that is now heavily oxidized.

geim32 said:

You can just pitch it in but making a starter is better and easy to do. Just get an erlenmeyer flask from ur LHBS but u don't have to have one. Boil 1000 ml of water and then add 100 grams of DME to it. Then pour into the flask or a sanitized water jug and give it a quick ice bath. When its cooled pour the yeast in and shake the flask whenever u walk by it. After about 24-36 hours stick it in the fridge let all the yeast settle out an then pour out the wort keeping the yeast in the flask. Next make ur beer and pour the yeast starter in when finished.

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Once you take it out of the fridge do u just let it warm up to room temp pour off the wort and pitch it. I am just starting to get into yeast starters. Mine was out for 3 days and I just put it in the fridge. If I brew tomorrow do I have to make another starter or will the yeast act back up when pitched into the wort. The first 2 days I saw a lot of activity now it has slowed.
Thanks for the help.

Has the activity slowed because the yeast have converted all the sugars ?

You will be fine just take it out the morning you brew your beer let it get to room temp and pitch it into your primary. It will be fine.

Take it out and warm it up. Dump the "beer" that it on top, leave just a bit in there though. Enough to get the yeast in the bottom back into suspension and easy to pour. I normally keep a little and will toss it back on the plate to get it stirred back up into a slurry.

How long will it stay good for in the fridge?

I do 24 hours in the fridge.

If its stays longer is there something I should do. I was planning on brewing tonight but am not able to. Just don't want to mess this upcoming brew day up.

Just keep it in fridge. The starter for my dubbel sat in the fridge for over a week because of the flu. The yeasties did their job just fine.