1st time starter....help!

My first starter. Making an octoberfest ale. Using wyeast kolsch smackpack. Ive read several schools of thought. I'm making 5 gal. How much water and DME do you recommend I make starter with?
Ive seen 2 cups and Ive seen 1500 ml.

I'd use 2 liters of water and 200 grams of dme. or you can use one of these calculators: mrmalty.com or yeastcalc.com put in the og of the beer and the batch size and they show you how big of a starter to use.

I have a 2 liter flask.
I'll check those out

You want to get to 1.040 on the starter liquid. 6oz DME to 2 cups water. Now how many cups in a liter?
Or what hogarthe said.

I only have 1 smackpack. Those sites are scaring me away.
So one of you recommends only 2 cups of water? That will barely cover the bottom of my flask I'm guessing. Can you estimate a volume measurement for the DME.?

I never use more than one smack pack. that's why I'm making a starter, is to grow yeast so I don't have to buy extra packs. I think the calcs sometimes go overboard, I've found if you do a 2 liter starter, with one pack of yeast, you get enough yeast for a reasonable gravity ale. if you are doing something over 1.060, you might need to increase it to 3 liters. I've seen measurements for how many cups of dme to use, but I don't remember it.

rdbrett said:

I only have 1 smackpack. Those sites are scaring me away.
So one of you recommends only 2 cups of water? That will barely cover the bottom of my flask I'm guessing. Can you estimate a volume measurement for the DME.?

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Don't be scared
Plug in the date of the yeast and the OG of the batch and look at the pitch rate recommended

Go to the steps atWww.yeastcalc.com and enter 1.5 L and stir method. Play with bit until your cell count is in green

Make your starter. Add DME to flask and fill with necessary volume of water and stir until mixed. DME should be 10:1; 100grams to 1L, 150g to 1.5L, etc ....Bring to boil for 5-10 minutes, cool and pitch yeast. Cover with sanitized foil and shake, stir away. 18-24 hours and it should ferment out.

Chill for 24 hours, decant liquid, swirl slurry and pitch into wort

Easy

Wow. Thx for all the help. I have a 2L starter going to work on my stirplate since last night. Next question, i really would like to brew today, any way I can pitch it today? I have milled grains that I need to use and more time today! Its been going for 12 hours and looks to be working away!

I use www.mrmalty.com great free resource

if it's been going for 12 hours, it's probably at high krausen. that's a good time to pitch, as the yeast are active and will start fermenting the beer right away.

So if I do that, I obviously pitch the entire thing right? No way to separate w/out putting in fridge I assume.

Nope, just dump the whole thing in. Just don't forget to stop the stirbar from going into the fermenter, where mine currently is right now.

yes, dump the whole thing in at high krausen.

LovesIPA said:

Nope, just dump the whole thing in. Just don't forget to stop the stirbar from going into the fermenter, where mine currently is right now.

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my stir bar always ends up there. good thing I have extras, lol

Hogarthe said:

my stir bar always ends up there. good thing I have extras, lol

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A magnet will hold the stir bar , preventing from going into the fermenternn

I have a magnet for that purpose, but would have forgotten! Thx. May still forget!

rdbrett said:

I have a magnet for that purpose, but would have forgotten! Thx. May still forget!

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Lol . understand. I forget other stuff alot of times.

kapbrew13 said:

A magnet will hold the stir bar , preventing from going into the fermenternn

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yeah, I just haven't gotten around to getting a magnet strong enough to hold it.

Hogarthe said:

yeah, I just haven't gotten around to getting a magnet strong enough to hold it.

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Harbor freight magnetic pick up tool thing. Works great and a few bucks.