Questionable starter process

So last night I was drinking and I decided to make a starter for this weekends brew. When I went to look for some DME I found I had none. But I had priming sugar....so in an inebriated stroke of genus, I made a 1 quart starter with 4oz of priming sugar.



Any thoughts?

I think I've read that the yeast will "peter out" from using straight sugar and you won't get very good fermentation when you pitch it.

One reason you don't want to use priming sugar for a starter is you are programming your yeast to eat all the simple sugars first, which ultimately can result in a stuck fermentation, since they won't want to break all of the maltose down into glucose and other easily fermentable sugars.

It is a bad practice, I have never used a starter made from dextrose so I honestly can't say what you results will be, but the consensus here is it's a bad practice.

Remember, the reason for making a starter in the first place is to grow healthy yeast for a healthy fermentation, placing them in an environment as similar to wort as possible is goinig to be the best way to prepare them for duty.

Do some research on it here on HBT, the question has been asked many times.

I would start over, if you can. You can maek a starter this afternoon and it will be ready to use by Sunday.

Do a little search on the Crabtree Effect. This is what your yeast will do if you use this starter, and the results will not be very good.

Furthermore, the sugar will provide none of the essential nutrients that malt extract would, so the yeast will likely be rather unhealthy.

Rats......

kevmoron said:

I would start over, if you can. You can maek a starter this afternoon and it will be ready to use by Sunday.

Do a little search on the Crabtree Effect. This is what your yeast will do if you use this starter, and the results will not be very good.

Furthermore, the sugar will provide none of the essential nutrients that malt extract would, so the yeast will likely be rather unhealthy.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info kevmoron, first time I've heard of the Crabtree effect.