Starter stepping up question

Man my Google-fu must stink. I'm sure this has been answered before but...

I'm planning my first lager and a large starter seems to be usually recommended for lagers: a gallon is the last figure I saw.

So I'm cool with making a starter (never done it, but done plenty of sourdough starters and watched videos on beer starters). What I'm hazy on is stepping up.

Let's say I start with 32oz of water + 1cp of DME and pitch my smack-pack into it. It ferments merrily away on my counter for a day or two.

Now do I just make 32oz of wort, dump it into the existing starter and shake it up? Repeat over 2 more days?

Or do I now make 64oz of wort, decant the old wort and just pitch the yeast?

Also, how does one know when its time to build up? I've been reading about "high kraeusen" but haven't seen anything on how to tell when you've reached that point.

Thanks for any direction,

-Joe

Go here: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

This is a great tool to answer your question for each batch. Good luck!

I decant some and then add new. I figure that it has done its job on the old. Some of the old stays in there, I just get rid of about 60-70% of it and pitch some new. I would step up the volulme and maybe the gravity each time. For a standard ale with purchased liquid yeast, I only use one starter feeding. I can't comment on the size of a lager starter, but I would decant and add more to it each time. If you do a 32, 32, and then a 64, you have a gallon starter. At least that is how I would look at it.

If you are going to pitch it into a high gravity beer, then you should build it up on higher gravity wort. 1.040 is the standard and then I would take it up to 1.060

nostalgia said:

Also, how does one know when its time to build up? I've been reading about "high kraeusen" but haven't seen anything on how to tell when you've reached that point.

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Thanks for the input. Any info on this part?

-Joe

nostalgia said:

Thanks for the input. Any info on this part?

-Joe

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It looks like the top of your fermenter or bucket during fermentation, just on a smaller scale.

Like this,



I've only managed to have a starter at high krauzen when I was ready to pitch it once, and it was awesome, the beer started fermenting in less than 3 hours.

Awesome. A pictures helps a lot. Thanks!

-Joe

Ok, I'm about ready to start (no pun intended) and have one more nooby question for you.

I'm planning to brew my lager on Sunday. According to MrMalty, I'll need about a gallon of starter.

So I was planning to mix 32oz of water with 1cp of DME and pitch into that. I was going to add the same over the next 3 days to make a full gallon. If I start building tonight (Tuesday) it'll be done by Friday and have 2 days of fermentation before I pitch it on Sunday.

Sound right?

Thanks in advance,

-Joe

Well, I went ahead and got things going. Boiled some wort for 15 minutes, let it cool to 75F, put it in a well-cleaned and sanitized growler, shook the bejeebus out of it, pitched, swirled, tin-foiled, and put in my 70F basement.

We'll see how it looks in the morning.

-Joe

I am curious to see how this all turns out for you.

I will be doing my first stater for my next brew, and it will need to be pretty big. I have been reading up as much as I can, but I am still fuzzy on some of the details. All the more info the better.

I've moved from being crazy about the details (I'm an engineer and all) to, "What's the worst that can happen?"

I've maintained sourdough starters for years, so this should be cake.

Once I finally charge my camera's battery I'll add in some pictures.

-Joe

Here we go. Starter, day 1.



-Joe

Day two. Definite settling, but no activity on top as in the photo above. Then as I type this it hits me that it's a lager yeast, so I should expect this.

Look like I'm on the right track? Going to make another 32oz of wort and add it tomorrow, methinks.



-Joe

What size container is that?

nostalgia said:

Day two. Definite settling, but no activity on top as in the photo above. Then as I type this it hits me that it's a lager yeast, so I should expect this.

Look like I'm on the right track? Going to make another 32oz of wort and add it tomorrow, methinks.

-Joe

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Looks good to me, you have a nice band of creamy looking yeast on the bottom!

9/9 said:

What size container is that?

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It's a 1/2 gallon growler. I was advised by a friend who's made lagers before that 1/2 gallon of starter should be enough, so that's what I'm trying.

-Joe

Wow amazing woodworking there!!!

Revvy said:

Wow amazing woodworking there!!!

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Hey thanks! That's mighty nice of you Next time you're in NJ swing by and I'll let you give the machines a try.

-Joe

Day 3. Boiled another 32oz water and 1cp DME, cooled to 70F and added it to the starter. Shook the bejeebus clean out of it and re-foiled. After this picture it went back down into my fermenter freezer which is currently set at 66F.



-Joe

Day 4. Looks like I've got a nice yeast layer down there. I think one more feeding tonight. And possibly moving to a larger container



-Joe

If anyone was following my starter saga, it continues here.

Thanks for all the help getting started!

-Joe