Starter question/Confusing instructions

So i know that there are all these ways to make starters, but i'm kind of confused with the instructions sheet i've received/materials ect. so i'll start with this:


that's the sheet. so i have the big tub of DME and i'm set with that, but then i have a "5oz Yeast Starter pack (Dry Malt Extract)". Should i just boil 1 cup of water and add ALL of that pack then pitch the yeast?

onto the instructions. It says remove Crushed Grains. huh??? where are they supposed to be in the first place? or am i supposed to "crush" them before hand?

just a bit confused, sorry if i'm beating a dead horse

i'm looking to pitch my starter within the next hour (brewing in ~18 hours) so TIA for quick answers!!!

oh and a follow up question -

when pitching the priming sugar into my last (first) batch, i didn't boil it down in (1 cup of) water, i just added it directly. i thoroughly stirred while not oxegenating the beer so i'm confident i shouldn't have any bottle bombs/uneven carbonation (for the most part), am i ok?

how is one of these going to taste after ~10 days? i kind of want to try one tonight

Be very wary of kit instructions, you may want to start here: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/index.html

After you get the basics down, there is a whole new world of brewing knowledge that will help you improve your beer and brewing skills.

There is a search box on that link at the top right, it is very handy, type in: yeast starter, hit enter.

It's not perfect but it'll work. I have a friend that made 1 cup starters quite a few times and said it worked fine. He is on the MrMalty train now. Make your starter as you planned and use it as planned. There are better safer ways but I'd bet your beer will be fine.

1) To address your second post: Always boil your priming sugar in a small amount of water (2 cups or so) so it'll kill anything in it. You're probably fine though, so don't sweat it - just remember for next time.

2) to address your first questions, it looks like they've provided you with an amount of DME (5 oz) to use for a yeast starter, but the instructions actually say nothing about how to make the yeast starter (from what I can tell anyway - it's HUGE!). FYI you can read up about yeast starters at http://www.mrmalty.com/ Yeast starters are only for liquid yeast. If you're brewing in 18 hours it's problematic for the yeast starter because you should allow a couple of days for the yeast to build up their numbers in the starter. Basically the way it works is you boil some DME (your 5 oz package of DME) in some water (1.5 quarts or so for the 5 oz DME) for 10-15 minutes, then cool it down to about 80F, put it in a sanitized container (such as a big mason jar or growler), then pitch the liquid yeast into that. Cover with a patch of aluminum foil. Let it sit at room temp & swirl often to get oxygen into it & keep the yeast in the solution. Let it ferment out for a couple of days. Then after you've brewed and have your wort down to pitching temperature (say 68F or so), you can decant off a bunch of the clear liquid (but not all), then swirl the yeast into solution and pitch that into your wort. In your case if you want to brew in 18 hours, you could probably just do all the steps above until you're ready to pitch the yeast starter, & just pitch it all into the carboy - it'll probably still be actively fermenting, which is fine (don't decant anything off in that case - a lot of yeast will still be in suspension).

3) If you have dry yeast instead of liquid, disregard the yeast starter. It'll actually weaken the dry yeast. In the case of dry yeast you should rehydrate it. Basically you boil a couple of cups of water for 10-15 minutes, let it cool to about 90F, then sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for 15 minutes then stir the yeast into the water (with a sanitized spoon of course - a good rule of thumb is if it will get boiled you don't need to sanitize it, but if it won't get boiled you do). The dry yeast is now ready for pitching.

4) What they mean by "remove crushed grains" just means dump them out of the bag they came in into the water (but hopefully you have a grain bag to put them in so they can be used like a "tea bag" in the water - if no grain bag you can just add them to the water and follow the instructions for the 152-158F steep for 30 minutes, then strain that water with a regular kitchen strainer into your boil pot - you might need to transfer them into a second vessel of some sort first, then into your brew pot which you were originally using for the grain steeping step). Hopefully your grains are already crushed. I assume they must be if they came with a kit. To check, all the grain kernels should be cracked and you should have some amount of pretty fine "dust" type stuff in the bag. If they're not, you need to have them crushed.

Hope that helps... definitely check into How to Brew by Palmer, like COLObrewer said ^^^.

Actually the instructions are pretty good. They just don't include what you should do with the 5 oz DME...

Frodo said:

1) To address your second post: Always boil your priming sugar in a small amount of water (2 cups or so) so it'll kill anything in it. You're probably fine though, so don't sweat it - just remember for next time.

2) to address your first questions, it looks like they've provided you with an amount of DME (5 oz) to use for a yeast starter, but the instructions actually say nothing about how to make the yeast starter (from what I can tell anyway - it's HUGE!). FYI you can read up about yeast starters at http://www.mrmalty.com/ Yeast starters are only for liquid yeast. If you're brewing in 18 hours it's problematic for the yeast starter because you should allow a couple of days for the yeast to build up their numbers in the starter. Basically the way it works is you boil some DME (your 5 oz package of DME) in some water (1.5 quarts for the 5 oz DME) for 10-15 minutes, then cool it down to about 90F, put it in a sanitized container (such as a big mason jar or growler), then pitch the liquid yeast into that. Cover with a patch of aluminum foil. Let it sit at room temp & swirl often to get oxygen into it & keep the yeast in the solution. Let it ferment out for a couple of days. Then after you've brewed and have your wort down to pitching temperature (say 68F or so), you can decant off a bunch of the clear liquid (but not all), then swirl the yeast into solution and pitch that into your wort. In your case if you want to brew in 18 hours, you could probably just do all the steps above until you're ready to pitch the yeast starter, & just pitch it all into the carboy - it'll probably still be actively fermenting, which is fine (don't decant anything off in that case - a lot of yeast will still be in suspension).

3) If you have dry yeast instead of liquid, disregard the yeast starter. It'll actually weaken the dry yeast. In the case of dry yeast you should rehydrate it. Basically you boil a couple of cups of water for 10-15 minutes, let it cool to about 90F, then sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for 15 minutes then stir the yeast into the water (with a sanitized spoon of course - a good rule of thumb is if it will get boiled you don't need to sanitize it, but if it won't get boiled you do). The dry yeast is now ready for pitching.

4) What they mean by "remove crushed grains" just means dump them out of the bag they came in into the water (but hopefully you have a grain bag to put them in so they can be used like a "tea bag" in the water - if no grain bag you can just add them to the water and follow the instructions for the 152-158F steep for 30 minutes, then strain that water with a regular kitchen strainer into your boil pot - you might need to transfer them into a second vessel of some sort first, then into your brew pot which you were originally using for the grain steeping step). Hopefully your grains are already crushed. I assume they must be if they came with a kit. To check, all the grain kernels should be cracked and you should have some amount of pretty fine "dust" type stuff in the bag. If they're not, you need to have them crushed.

Hope that helps... definitely check into How to Brew by Palmer, like COLObrewer said ^^^.

Actually the instructions are pretty good. They just don't include what you should do with the 5 oz DME...

Click to expand...

PERFECT. thanks a ton. i have a yeast accelerator as well i'm going to be using in this batch, so i'm not too concerned about the ~day wasted on the starter, but i also read *somewhere* that 18-24 is enough for the starter (i can't recall where). it's Wyeast Liquid, i used dry yeast on my first batch, figured i'd try liquid on the second! off to the stove

I edited my post above - pitch the liquid yeast into the starter at 80F, not 90F.

If you have 5 oz DME for the starter, you need to boil that in about 1.4 liter water. For best results, you could also add 1/4 oz yeast nutrient to the boil. Boil for about 15 minutes, cool it to 70 - 80F, pour into a sanitized container, pitch the yeast, and cover the container loosely with some sanitized foil or a sanitized jam jar, or anything that will stop stuff dropping into the starter, but not seal it from the air. Then give it a good swirl as often as possible to keep the yeast in suspension. Try to keep the starter somewhere in the 70's F. After 18 - 24 hours, the starter should be ready to pitch. If the yeast is old (more than 2 - 3 months), it may take a little longer to start.

-a.

all done with the starter... it's about 1inch from the brim of my 1000ml flask so when i get home tonight i'm 99% sure that the airlock is going to be blown. oh well, i have no other container

my first beer from my first batch. only 10 days in the bottle and it's damn near perfect IMO. cant complain one bit, and it'll get better with time. best part? my birthday is wednesday and i didn't think it would be ready in time!!!

AWESOME