starter size and pitch day after brewing?

I just got my ingredients and today works out to be a perfect brew day. Problem is I haven't made my starter.

Any issue with brewing a batch of beer today and pitching my starter tomorrow?

Also, i've used two calculators that disagree on the size of the starter. Both calculators agree on the amount of cells needed. About 246 billion but differ on the size of starter.

I'm making a 1.068og milk chocolate stout and the calculator(Mr. Malty) says, with stir plate, that I need a 1.49L starter.
Brewsmith says I need a 1.13L starter.

Yeast was manufactured on 10/31/12

Using wyeast 1084.

starter are great, I use them as much as i can, but that being said, if i have the time and the ingredients nothing will hold me back from brewing. Sure its not as ideal, but a slap pack has enough yeast to get the job done

people do it, but i do not recommend pitching the next day

The major issue with waiting a day to pitch is that you increase the window for other stuff (read: infections) to take hold. If you brew AG, maybe you should think about the overnight mash--search the forums, there are a couple of really good threads on this. Otherwise, I would try to put off brewing until your yeast is ready to go.

I did buy materials for several different batches of beer. I could postpone this milk stout for a lower gravity Bavarian Hef and do that one today and pitch from the smack pack.

This hef is 1.055og and the yeast i'm using is wyeast 3068 manufactured on 10/12/12. Mr. Malty says I need a 1.18L starter w/stir plate for this batch.

It's probably best to make your starter and wait to brew another day. Do it right the first time and you won't have any regrets later. Just my $.02.

Any issue of making the starter, letting the yeast grow for 24-36 hours and then leaving the starter in the fridge till next week?

archer75 said:

Any issue of making the starter, letting the yeast grow for 24-36 hours and then leaving the starter in the fridge till next week?

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with that, but why not just wait until a day or two before brew day? If you do go that route, pull the yeast out a day ahead of time and add a little more wort to get the yeast energized and ready to pitch

You can brew your batch, and pitch at a later time. The slow chill people do this (ie chill through air contact, not with an ice bath or a chiller -usuallya bout 12 hours) But you have to remember to keep it covered from about 160F and lower until you pitch. Alternatively, you could reheat for 20 mins to kill anything that got started.

But this is far from ideal. You have a Stout and an Hefe mentioned, pity none are belgians - belgian beers are more tollerant of underpitching.

Can you get to the LHBS and pick up a 2nd yeast? Just pitch 2 vials? Probably not.

Lastly you can make it less stressfull on your yeast if you oxygenate better and include a little trub from the brew.

I can't get to the brew store today.

I do have an aeration setup, pump and stainless diffusion thingy.

Lately when I brew, I let the wort sit overnight in carboy to settle out most of the trub, rack to another carboy then oxygenate and pitch. I also run however much wort from the boil that I need for a starter into a flask and let it go overnight while the wort is settling. Don't have to decant anything just pitch the whole thing and good to go. Haven't had any problems yet(knock on wood).

So as long as your sanitization practices are good then there is no reason you couldn't brew today and pitch tomorrow. Just a matter of how comfortable you are with your cleanliness.

Agree with that. There are those that argue that anything you do that increases the risk of infection is bad, but I think it's a risk/reward tradeoff. You might have a slightly increased chance of infection (since no matter how careful/thorough we are, we're never working in completely bacteria free conditions), but whether or not you decide to do it is more about your personal willingness to tolerate that additional risk. I tend to think that if you're pretty careful about santization, chances are you'll be OK.

If you can cool fairly quickly to a fairly low temp, and keep it there, that could buy you time to let the starter get going... Yes??

Cheers

Right--it's not that it's a bad per se, and the lower you can get the temp the better off you're likely to be. Is it ideal? No, because as I said before, the longer you let the wort sit without pitching, the more likelihood (even if it's still low) that something besides your yeast will take up residence. But it's probably a manageable risk, assuming that you sanitize well and follow good procedures. Not something I would want to do all the time, but if it was between that and not brewing at all, I'd probably choose to go ahead and do it.