Making a starter...1l of water in 1l flask OK?

I'm getting ready to make a starter and was advised by the place i got the kit to use 1 liter of water and 1/2C DME. I have a 1000ml erlenmeyer flask...is that going to be large enough? John palmers guide suggests 1/2 qt of water and 1/2C DME, which is why i got the 1000ml flask opposed to the 2000ml.

I don't think that flask will work with 0.5 cup dme and 1 liter of water. Do you have an empty growler hanging around? That might work with the ingredients above. Last starter I made was about 2 liters of water and 1 cup DME in a gallon jug. Worked great.

The flask will be fine, but your going to want to be more precise than just using 1/2 cup of DME. Your going to want to make a starter with an OG around 040. Too much DME and you could stress out the lil yeasties. There alot of folks on here that will tell you that 2000ml are best, and they might be right, I dunno. But all I've ever used is 1000ml starters with 100g of DME. I find it easy to remember also (1000ml 100g). And I've never had a slow start (usually within 4-6hours).

Edit: I also toss in a pinch of yeast nutrient also.

Well, a 2000ml flask is only $5 more, so i'll go ahead and do the exchange. That'll give me the extra room if i ever do need it.

Yeah, I'd get the 2L... especially if you're going to boil it in the flask. Boiling 1L in a 1L flask is just screaming for boilover without Fermcap!

Gritsak said:

Well, a 2000ml flask is only $5 more, so i'll go ahead and do the exchange. That'll give me the extra room if i ever do need it.

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I'm not expert but that sounds like a good idea.

I have only done 2 starters and using MrMalty as a guide they were supposed to be 1.5 and 1.75 liters. I'm using a growler right now but if I were to switch to a flask I'd need at least 2 liters to make it work.

The original gravity of the beer you brew determines how large of a starter you need to make. So the bigger the beer, the larger the starter.

You can make a starter with 1/2 cup DME and 4 cups of water and you'll have some headspace in the 1000mL flask. But if you want to step it up a few times (which larger beers will require) you're going to run out of room. 2000mL should be good for 5.5 gallon batches but if you plan on doing 10+ gallon batches I'd say get the 5000mL flask.

I'd suggest putting a drop of fermcap to help control the foam from the starter. It's also great when you boil because you don't have to worry about boiling over.

Below is a link to a calculator that will help you determine how large of a starter you need to make.

Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

+1 on the 1/2 cup of DME to 1 quart (4 cups) water. I have a 1000ml and it works fine in that. I have used it for many a beer and has always worked well. That mix gets you right at about 1.040.
That said, I plan on investing on a 2000ml for bigger starters for bigger beers.

The problem with measuring your DME instead of weighing it is everyone's cup or 1/2 cup is different. You should use a 10:1 water to DME ratio, which like stated above will be 1000 mL of water to 100 g of DME. This will get your starter very close to 1.040.