How to make a yeast starter - Pictorial

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This will be a dry yeats but i still get what your saying, pitch the entire contents of whatever yeast your going to use in the DME/water starter.

Of all the threads I've searched, googled I don't think anyone ever mentions this fact with making a starter. I think it's SUPER important that information is known.

With that being said thanks for the reply.


Next question is say you buy ingred. or kit or whatever for a partial mash. Can you pitch the slurry from another batch, jared and taken from the fridge along with the yeast needed for the batch your making??
 
Not a problem. Normally yeast starters are made with liquid yeast cultures so I'm guessing everybody has taken the fact that you would pitch the whole pack for granted. I've never made a dry yeast starter before but it probably can't hurt anything. Not sure if its really necessary since the dry stuff is usually pretty resilient.

You can wash the yeast from previous batches but there really is no reason to pitch two yeasts at once. Unless you are making a sour or something. There are a ton if great articles about yeast washing here on HBT and all over the web. I have never done it but it seems fairly easy. You can also use two yeasts to finish out a beer, but you would be pitching that after the primary fermentation is finished or if it got stuck.
 
Dry yeast is packaged and ready to use in peak condition so if you make a starter with it you just end up depleting the yeast's reserves and actually decrease the ability of the yeast to go to work with optimum capabilities on the wort. Rehydrating is the best way to get the most from your package of dry yeast.

Boil some water then let cool down to 95-105*f, into 1 cupful pour the contents of your packet and let it sit on the surface. It'll gradually start dropping to the bottom and eventually start foaming/turning creamy. You can give it a bit of a stir now to make the slurry a nice, even, viscosity. Ideally you want to get the rehydrated yeast slurry and your wort to a temp difference of less than 10*f of each other for pitching, so as not to shock the yeast, and some say that absolute optimum for pitching is within 40 minutes of beginning rehydration, although I've also seen 15 minutes mentioned.

It's possible to get decent results by just sprinkling dry yeast on the surface of your wort but something like a 40% to 60% depletion of the yeast, from instant exposure to the sugars, can result.
 
Good info guys, after several weeks of reading about yeast I didn't realize liquid yeast needed it's hand held so much compared to dry yeast. It cost more, it usually needs a starter, back rub and tap on the ass to get it started and dry yeast just works without all the other BS involved.

I think I read somewere that the liquid can give you a better end result as in better tasting beer and that's about the only benefit of it??
 
Short answer: yes. The healthier the yeast the better they work. The better they work the better the beer. Long answer is here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937381969/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have only ever used liquid yeast cultures but I'm not about to switch to dry because its "easier". Keep in mind a starter isn't 100% necessary. My first few batches I just pitched the whole smack pack in, and sure enough I ended up with beer! But without a starter, I see it almost like starting a car in 4th gear. It may work, but not very efficiently.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
RIC0 said:
Good info guys, after several weeks of reading about yeast I didn't realize liquid yeast needed it's hand held so much compared to dry yeast. It cost more, it usually needs a starter, back rub and tap on the ass to get it started and dry yeast just works without all the other BS involved.

I think I read somewere that the liquid can give you a better end result as in better tasting beer and that's about the only benefit of it??
Click to expand...

You also have variety a of yeast that you can't get in dry form. If you want to brew a Belgian, your only choice is liquid yeast.
 
Today I'll be using a dry yeast Safbrew T-58, 11.5g packet

It will be a little under pitched according to mrmalty but I'm not too concerned it'll still have a blowoff hose as it should get crazy.

The plan is to have the yeast hydrated and close to 60 degress same as the wort when I pitch it.
 
as a follow up to this I rehydrated the yeast and within 6 hours it started fermenting and is still going strong 36+ hours later.

Here's some food for thought the temp of the other primaries in my fermenting room are all 66 degrees, the belgian with a blanket around it is at 76. A full 10 degrees difference due to the fermentation. I've removed the blanket so it drops some but it called for a raise of 10 degrees from start till end of fermentation.
 
I just made my first starter. It has been less than 24 hours and it is at high kraesen. There is a fair amount of trub in the bottom. Should I pitch the whole thing or just the liquid off the top of the trub?
 
chanson16 said:
I just made my first starter. It has been less than 24 hours and it is at high kraesen. There is a fair amount of trub in the bottom. Should I pitch the whole thing or just the liquid off the top of the trub?
Click to expand...

I am getting close to pitching so any thoughts would be a big help. Thanks!
 
All that tub in the bottom IS the yeast you want to pitch. If anything, decant some of the liquor off the top, swirl the flask to resuspend the yeast and THEN pitch.
 
ianw58 said:
All that tub in the bottom IS the yeast you want to pitch. If anything, decant some of the liquor off the top, swirl the flask to resuspend the yeast and THEN pitch.
Click to expand...

Since it is fermenting, the yeast isn't in suspension?
 
No.

Yeast can be suspended and NOT fermenting.

Yeast flocculates, or clumps together, at certain phases of development/fermentation. Floculated yeast is what you're seeing at the bottom. This is NOT dead yeast. It just "resting".

One of the reasons that many of us use a stir plate for starters is that the stirring keeps the yeast suspended AND helps provide oxygen for aerobic growth.

If you wash and reuse yeast from your brew sessions, allowing the yeast to flocuulate and fall to the bottom helps separate the gunk from the healthy yeast.

Trust me, pour off a bit of the liquid on top so that it doesn't affect the OG of the wort. Swirl the flask and pitch the good stuff from the bottom.

Kick back. Pour yourself a glass of beer from a previous brew up and relax. This is not rocket surgery! People have been brewing good beer for thousands of years!
 
If you don't have a stir plate, you can give your flask a good shake every time you walk by. I usually make my starter 24 hours before I brew and shake/swirl it every chance I get to keep yeast party going.
 
ianw58 said:
No.

Yeast can be suspended and NOT fermenting.

Yeast flocculates, or clumps together, at certain phases of development/fermentation. Floculated yeast is what you're seeing at the bottom. This is NOT dead yeast. It just "resting".

One of the reasons that many of us use a stir plate for starters is that the stirring keeps the yeast suspended AND helps provide oxygen for aerobic growth.

If you wash and reuse yeast from your brew sessions, allowing the yeast to flocuulate and fall to the bottom helps separate the gunk from the healthy yeast.

Trust me, pour off a bit of the liquid on top so that it doesn't affect the OG of the wort. Swirl the flask and pitch the good stuff from the bottom.

Kick back. Pour yourself a glass of beer from a previous brew up and relax. This is not rocket surgery! People have been brewing good beer for thousands of years!
Click to expand...

Thanks!!! I did a 1.75L starter. How much would you poor off?
 
Poor off most of the liquid carefully, and leave just enough of the liquid in the flask to be able to stir up the yeasties on the bottom of the flask. I do this by swirling the flask in a circular motion until I don't see anymore yeast stuck to the bottom of the flask, and I do this just before pitching the yeast. Also make sure the starter is at room temp at least before pitching it. This will insure quick response from the yeasties in your fermenter.
 
I also cold crash my starters over night before my brew day, then I take it out of the fridge, let it come to room temp before I poor off the liquid (now beer) and swirl as described above, and pitch.
 
Thanks for this. The next recipe I am looking at calls for a starter and i wasn't really sure how to do it.
 
Ogri said:
Dry yeast is packaged and ready to use in peak condition so if you make a starter with it you just end up depleting the yeast's reserves and actually decrease the ability of the yeast to go to work with optimum capabilities on the wort. Rehydrating is the best way to get the most from your package of dry yeast.

Boil some water then let cool down to 95-105*f, into 1 cupful pour the contents of your packet and let it sit on the surface. It'll gradually start dropping to the bottom and eventually start foaming/turning creamy. You can give it a bit of a stir now to make the slurry a nice, even, viscosity. Ideally you want to get the rehydrated yeast slurry and your wort to a temp difference of less than 10*f of each other for pitching, so as not to shock the yeast, and some say that absolute optimum for pitching is within 40 minutes of beginning rehydration, although I've also seen 15 minutes mentioned.

It's possible to get decent results by just sprinkling dry yeast on the surface of your wort but something like a 40% to 60% depletion of the yeast, from instant exposure to the sugars, can result.
Click to expand...

I've made a few starters from dry yeast. Sprinkling it into starter wort isn't much different from sprinkling it into a fermenter...it's sugar water for it to multiply and ferment. I would rehydrate it first, yes.

The reason I do this is so I can just buy one packet of US-05 and still use it on 9g of beer. It's worked fantastically for me, using the various calculators to determine the proper starter size, of course.
 
tre9er said:
I've made a few starters from dry yeast. Sprinkling it into starter wort isn't much different from sprinkling it into a fermenter...it's sugar water for it to multiply and ferment. I would rehydrate it first, yes.

The reason I do this is so I can just buy one packet of US-05 and still use it on 9g of beer. It's worked fantastically for me, using the various calculators to determine the proper starter size, of course.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was definitely guilty there of regurgitating what I'd read, believed and taken as gospel regarding dry yeast, here on HBT:eek:


What you say there makes sense, right enough. Rehydrate then pitch into your starter wort. If properly rehydrated first they can be introduced into the starter wort without any worries about further depletion from sugar shock (or whatever it is that depletes their viability when pitched powder to wort)and healthy propagation should begin pretty rapidly. Will give it a bash on an upcoming batch.:mug:

Wonder if it'd be possible to do that with S-23 or W34/70 to make an effective starter for a lager. They're always quite a bit more expensive than US-05 and S-04 here and when I look at a yeast calculator like Mr malty they usually show that I need about 2 packs.
 
Ogri said:
Yeah, I was definitely guilty there of regurgitating what I'd read, believed and taken as gospel regarding dry yeast, here on HBT:eek:


What you say there makes sense, right enough. Rehydrate then pitch into your starter wort. If properly rehydrated first they can be introduced into the starter wort without any worries about further depletion from sugar shock (or whatever it is that depletes their viability when pitched powder to wort)and healthy propagation should begin pretty rapidly. Will give it a bash on an upcoming batch.:mug:

Wonder if it'd be possible to do that with S-23 or W34/70 to make an effective starter for a lager. They're always quite a bit more expensive than US-05 and S-04 here and when I look at a yeast calculator like Mr malty they usually show that I need about 2 packs.
Click to expand...

There's no reason why you can't. Once you rehydrate it, it's just like liquid yeast. I've had no issues thus-far.
 
tre9er said:
There's no reason why you can't. Once you rehydrate it, it's just like liquid yeast. I've had no issues thus-far.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. In fact, now that I think about it, could it possibly be even better than using liquid yeast purchased through the usual channels, in terms of viability (and definitely in terms of volume), unless you are able to get hold of a pack/vial of LY that was made something like 20 minutes ago?:fro::rockin:
 
H big a role does headspace play in a starter? I've always just boiled 1/4-1/2 c dme in 2 cups water for 15 mins and threw it in a sanitized 2L growler. Is that too big of a vessel? Should I use a 1L growler?
 
i made a starter and then couldn't get around to brewing so I put it in the fridge for 4 days. Is it still ok and should I make another starter to wake up the yeast? Also, there seems to be a green ring around the growler where the krausen was forming.
smelled it and it smells fine.
 
tg123 said:
i made a starter and then couldn't get around to brewing so I put it in the fridge for 4 days. Is it still ok and should I make another starter to wake up the yeast? Also, there seems to be a green ring around the growler where the krausen was forming.
smelled it and it smells fine.
Click to expand...

You're good. Just pitch it as is.
 
dp69_2001 said:
If you used hops in your starter you could hope it was that. Did it finish before you refrigerated it?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it finished. It was on a stir plate for about 2 days but I didn't take a gravity reading to verify. Had to stick it into the fridge and run out. Hoping it's not mold.

I went ahead and made another starter with it in preparation for tomorrow's brew. It's going strong with a pretty thick later of krausen forming on top. I'll probably split some off and save part of it for another brew in the future.
 
Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen? ;)

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.
 
dp69_2001 said:
Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen? ;)

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.
Click to expand...

Nope. no hops except maybe leftover from what I washed and harvested from the first batch of beer. Seems to be healthy right now with it back on the stirplate so I have high hopes. Thanks for the advice. :)
 
DB I just wanted to say thank you for this information. I have been brewing for a couple of years and waited way to long to start using Yeast Starters.
I have heard about doing this for a long time and what got me started was I got a bad yeast once. If I was using a starter I would have know it was dead before pitching. Thats what got me converted to this.
I got a starter going yesterday. It looked real good when I pitched it today and I checked it an hour and a half later and the airlock was already bubbling.

Thank you again.
 
dp69_2001 said:
Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen? ;)

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.
Click to expand...

So I brewed up a batch today and when I went to pitch I took a little whiff to see what it smelled like. It seemed to smell a bit on the sour side to me. It was 9pm and the LHBS was closed already...so I remembered what you said, "what's the worst that could happen?" and pitched it. :cross:

Hope that wasn't a mistake. :pipe:
 
Going cross eyed trying to find the answers to all my starter/washing questions! Found a bunch, maybe a little help with the last couple?

Is it nessisary to chill and decant when stepping up from 1 to 2 liters or can I just throw some fresh wort into the container and let er buck?

Everyone says use dme, got it. Any reason not to use up a gallon of amber lme I've got laying around?
 
garrett_8 said:
Going cross eyed trying to find the answers to all my starter/washing questions! Found a bunch, maybe a little help with the last couple?

Is it nessisary to chill and decant when stepping up from 1 to 2 liters or can I just throw some fresh wort into the container and let er buck?

Everyone says use dme, got it. Any reason not to use up a gallon of amber lme I've got laying around?
Click to expand...

Decant. If you add more liquid you won't get the desired 1.040.
Use the lme if you have it.
 

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