Refridgerating a Yeast Starter

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BrewCF

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This is my first post after a lot of lurking over the past few months.

After a few misfires with my fermentation I am going to make my first yeast starter this week. I am using a wyeast propogator pack. My questions are:

1. If I make the starter tonight (and I am brewing on Saturday), should I place the starter in the fridge after the 24 -48 hour "fermentation" period; or can I just store it at 70 degrees until brew day?

2. If I place the starter in the fridge, do I just take it out on brew day and let it come back up to room temperature prior to pitching, or should I add a little more wort/DME to the starter to get the yeast active again?
 
Welcome :mug:

1. If you are making a starter (not just smacking the pack), you can just leave it on the counter the 3-4 days until you are ready to brew. Generally when you refrigerate it it is to decant off the wort so you are pitching just the flocculated yeast at the bottom.

2. If you refrigerate to decant, your wort from brewing will serve to "wake them up" again. Just pull it out of the fridge, pour off the liquid on top carefully, then shake it up and pitch when your yeast and wort are about the same temp.
 
Just for general knowledge. I started a starter and then had an emergency and could not brew that weekend. I put the starter in my brew fridge for 6 days and took it out to warm up a day before brewing.

decanted and it worked great. No problems.
 
The last bit of yeast I washed from a previous batch I put in the fridge for 48 hours. After that I decided I was going to brew and put it in a starter to 'wake it up'. I had enough yeast but wanted to wake it up before I pitched... it started fermenting within an hour or so. I think you'll be fine pitching straight into your wort if it's only in the fridge a day or two.

Bringing it up to room temp first is a good idea. Bringing from ~40 to ~70 so quick isn't great for the yeast.
 
Thanks for the replies. Between the Oxygenator, the yeast starter and a lower mash temp, I *should* be able to hit my FG this time. :eek:
 
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