Haputanlas
Well-Known Member
Hey Guys,
I'm trying to put together a little bit of information about how to make a starter for sour/wild brews. I keep reading information that seems informative, but many seem to disagree on certain aspects.
Starters are very straightforward for regular yeasts, but seem very different for wilds/sours. Anyways, to keep this as short as possible, I'm going to bullet what I plan to do with a few questions.
By the way, I know that there are a few guys that don't typically make starters for sours (OldSock), so I'd like to bring this up whether or not I should even consider this. The reason I'm planning on making a starter rather than just pitching dregs is that I plan to make a few different batches for different purposes.
1 batch is a 10-gallon soured english ale. This is just a generic sour that I plan on using for blending with other "clean" ales. There are few other batches I want to have in tandem, but likely won't have enough dregs for batches of this size and I'd like to make sure the environment is optimal (Of course I could just buy a few more bottles for dregs).
Here are the points/questions I'm interested in:
- Apple Juice vs. DME
- No oxygen exposure. This means using an airlock and no stir-plate. Correct?
----- Possibly put a C02 blanket over the wort?
----- I will likely use an Erlenmyer flask which will have much smaller surface area for the pellicle (If anything shows up). Is there anything to consider here?
- Maybe 2 weeks (Rather than 24-48 hours)?
- I was planning to have a separate starter for the clean ale yeast and pitch both concurrently
Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks guys!
I'm trying to put together a little bit of information about how to make a starter for sour/wild brews. I keep reading information that seems informative, but many seem to disagree on certain aspects.
Starters are very straightforward for regular yeasts, but seem very different for wilds/sours. Anyways, to keep this as short as possible, I'm going to bullet what I plan to do with a few questions.
By the way, I know that there are a few guys that don't typically make starters for sours (OldSock), so I'd like to bring this up whether or not I should even consider this. The reason I'm planning on making a starter rather than just pitching dregs is that I plan to make a few different batches for different purposes.
1 batch is a 10-gallon soured english ale. This is just a generic sour that I plan on using for blending with other "clean" ales. There are few other batches I want to have in tandem, but likely won't have enough dregs for batches of this size and I'd like to make sure the environment is optimal (Of course I could just buy a few more bottles for dregs).
Here are the points/questions I'm interested in:
- Apple Juice vs. DME
- No oxygen exposure. This means using an airlock and no stir-plate. Correct?
----- Possibly put a C02 blanket over the wort?
----- I will likely use an Erlenmyer flask which will have much smaller surface area for the pellicle (If anything shows up). Is there anything to consider here?
- Maybe 2 weeks (Rather than 24-48 hours)?
- I was planning to have a separate starter for the clean ale yeast and pitch both concurrently
Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks guys!