Is it OK to do a Yeast starter 36 hours in advance?

I was reading that a yeast starter should be made 18-24 hours in advance. I'm brewing on Saturday and will not have time tomorrow to do it. So I was hoping I could do the starter tonight and use it Saturday.

Will that cause any problems?

Another reason I want to do it tonight is that I just got it in the mail from Austin Homebrew. Even though I paid extra for the cold shipment - it is at room temperature right now. SO I figure rather than putting it back in the fridge and then taking it out again it would be best to do it now.

Thanks!

it's fine, go for it

yes

In your shoes, I'd make up that starter tonight. Then tomorrow night, before I go to bed, I'd put the starter in the fridge to cold crash it. Saturday, when you're ready to brew, take the starter out. When it's time to pitch, decant off most of the starter beer then pitch the slurry, and you'll be good to go!

I would also make the starter tonight, assuming you have a stir plate, let it finish then cold crash it Friday night until a couple of hours before its time to pitch. Then just decant as much of the spent starter, leaving a little behind to help make a slurry. Mix it all up to be pitched into the brew of the day.

I do this all the time with my starters. I've also been making two smaller starters of late (getting the cell count far easier than with a single huge starter). In those cases, I make the first starter Tuesday evening , cold crash it starting Wednesday evening. I then make the second starter after decanting Thursday and cold crash that one starting Friday evening. Check out the calculation tool on yeastcalc.com to get an ides of how you can do this.

One thing that I did forget to mention is that I will be using a stir plate (not sure that makes any difference

stratslinger said:

When it's time to pitch, decant off most of the starter beer then pitch the slurry, and you'll be good to go!

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Just curious - why would I do that? Is it because it was sitting around for a long time? I actually purchased some Bavarian Wheat DME to use for this. Just want to understand for future knowledge. Thanks!

Well, especially since you'll be using that stir plate, the starter beer is likely going to be a pretty oxidized mess of a beer. Granted, it's only going to be about 1-2L in 5 gallons, so it won't have much, if any, of an impact on your final product. But in general, the starter beer isn't really designed to taste much like your actual recipe, so if you have the time and opportunity to eliminate it from the equation, you might as well take it!

You cold crash and decant before pitching the concentrated slurry so that you're pitching YEAST not however many litres of starter too. Adding spent starter is not something I would do. Basically you're adding low grade beer to something you really want. Again, not something I would do (or do do).

I do my best to leave less than 1/4" of spent starter on top of the yeast cake before turning it into a slurry.

OK - After submitting my last post - I saw the reply from Golddiggie explaining.

Thanks guys!

Got it. One further question - because I am actually brewing a 10 gallon batch - I purchased 2 of the Wyeast 3068 yeast packs. I planned on doing a 2 liter starter with that.

Would that be OK?

Or should I try to do one tonight let it spin and then try another one in the morning?

Thanks - I appreciate your time and insight.

Enter the information into either the mrmalty.com site or yeastcalc.com to see what you should do for the starter. A lot depends on the yeast date and batch OG. Just be sure to select that you're using a stir plate with the starter.

I also think you should think about getting a larger flask. Or start doing stepped starters. With that you could get the cell count with one yeast pack.

Do yourself a favor and check out yeastcalc.com or the yeast pitching calculator on mrmalty.com - they'll both help you figure out, based on the OG of your beer, exactly how big a starter you need. Going with 2 smack packs, plug in 200 billion cells as a starting point into yeastcalc and 10 gallons for volume, and go from there. On MrMalty, just play with the slider (you'll see what I mean) until it says you're adding 2 packs of yeast. Or, you can evaluate it as two separate 5 gallon batches, each with a single smack pack - the choice is yours!

Edit: Darn you Golddiggie!!!

Thanks for the info guys.

So now I am doing another batch and this time I'm just using a single smack pack and doing the multi-step preparation. I made a starter in 1.4L.

Now - my question is when I pour off the wort and leave just the yeast slurry, are we talking about leaving only the white stuff at the very bottom (like maybe a half inch or so in a 2L Erlenmayer Flask? Or would I be leaving more?

I just want to make sure that I don't pour off too much. Also - would it be advisable to use a turkey baster to remove the wort, or is that just overkill?

Thanks

What you want to do is allow your starter to ferment for 24+ hours on your stir plate, then put starter in the fridge. This will allow the yeast to fall to the bottom of your flask and go to sleep. All the liquid on top is your starter (low grade beer). When you decant, slowly pour the liquid out to not disturb the yeast cake. If done correctly, you will not pour out any yeast, and leave about 5-10% of starter liquid in the flask, so you can swirl the yeast into a slurry. Allow that to get to pitching temps then pitch. Turkey baster is way overkill, that could introduce another way to infect your batch. Simpler is better! If you gently tilt the flask, your yeast will stay on the bottom.

Good luck, I made my first starter Tuesday, and I did a 2 stage and I have a lot of yeast for my first lager (Oktoberfest). Should be a fun weekend.

justin