2 Starters - 1 is rocking, 1 is sucking...what to do?

BrewSwag 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.
Stevorino

Stevorino

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Messages
937
Reaction score
2
Location
Alpharetta, GA
I've got two 2 liter starters for an 11 gallon Helles I'm brewing today. I started them early yesterday evening-- one is going nuts, the other is being very crappy. I'm thinking I have 3 options:

1) Just leave them be and pitch each into a separate carboy (original plan).

2) Pour half of each into each carboy so that each 5 gallon fermenter gets half of the good starter and half of the bad one.

3) Mix them now so that the good starter can help the bad one out before I pitch around 5 or 6 tonight.

What do ya'll think?
 
Stevorino said:
I've got two 2 liter starters for an 11 gallon Helles I'm brewing today. I started them early yesterday evening-- one is going nuts, the other is being very crappy. I'm thinking I have 3 options:

1) Just leave them be and pitch each into a separate carboy (original plan).

2) Pour half of each into each carboy so that each 5 gallon fermenter gets half of the good starter and half of the bad one.

3) Mix them now so that the good starter can help the bad one out before I pitch around 5 or 6 tonight.

What do ya'll think?
Click to expand...

I'd just mix them now and divide the combined volume between the two carboys.
 
I'd like to do that-- but right after I read your reply, I started to wonder: Why is one of those starters taking off and the other not? I think I did everything pretty similarly...do you think the crappy one is still good to pitch?
 
Yes, it's probably still good to pitch. It's pretty common (for me anyway) for starters to not form krausen and show minimal activity.
 
Stevorino said:
So is your suggestion to still just pitch both into separate carboys like I originally planned?
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel better to combine the two starters, then go for it. Yeast is pretty tough, so I'm guessing that whatever you do with it it will still most likely ferment out your beer.
 
If you're looking for consistent results from both beers, then you're gonna need to combine the starters before pitching. If you want to just 'see what happens', then you could separate them.
 

Similar threads

Gadjobrinus
Fast solution for using IC pre-chiller for 5 gallons lager?
2
Replies
44
Views
1K
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
U
Lacto starter
Replies
5
Views
833
user 341102
U
H
Yeast starter not starting
Replies
16
Views
1K
HB2112
H
Arbe0
how much beer in 3 gallon carboy?
Replies
7
Views
775
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Z
Cure #1 & Cure #2 Deeper understanding
Replies
0
Views
394
Z-Menace
Z
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top