How to make a yeast starter - Pictorial (updated)

See, i just don't understand what the benefit of that could possibly be. The purpose of making a starter seems to be avoiding yeast reproduction in the beer, by pitching enough healthy yeast that most activity is dedicated to fermentation more than reproduction. Using a separate sacrificial batch of beer (starter) to do the reproduction in makes sense, which is why decanting starters makes sense to me. Pitching a whole starter seems pointless; you might as well just use a white labs vial by itself.

Hi all. I attempted my first starter yesterday. Using Mr Malty's calculator I needed 2 vials of liquid yeast and a 1.51L starter. I used 151g of DME and boiled that into 1.6L of water. Due to evaporation the final volume ended up being 1.25L. Is this ok or should I have added more water to get to the 1.51L? I'm just worried I am not going to have enough yeast for my brew. Any help appreciated. thanks

bg1414 said:

Hi all. I attempted my first starter yesterday. Using Mr Malty's calculator I needed 2 vials of liquid yeast and a 1.51L starter. I used 151g of DME and boiled that into 1.6L of water. Due to evaporation the final volume ended up being 1.25L. Is this ok or should I have added more water to get to the 1.51L? I'm just worried I am not going to have enough yeast for my brew. Any help appreciated. thanks

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If you have time never use two vials, just do a two stage starter. At this point you should boil and cool some water and bring up the volume to lower the specific gravity to help out the yeast.

BetterSense said:

See, i just don't understand what the benefit of that could possibly be. The purpose of making a starter seems to be avoiding yeast reproduction in the beer, by pitching enough healthy yeast that most activity is dedicated to fermentation more than reproduction. Using a separate sacrificial batch of beer (starter) to do the reproduction in makes sense, which is why decanting starters makes sense to me. Pitching a whole starter seems pointless; you might as well just use a white labs vial by itself.

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This sounds reasonable to me. So would my steps after "starting" yeast essentially be as follows?

1. Let yeast reproduce at room temp for 24 hours
2. Move to refrigerator overnight
3. Decant wort
4. Let stand for ~3 hours until at room temperature
5. Pitch room temperature "yeast cake" into cooled wort

(And that process would also be the same if I was going to "step up" my starter size)

Stepped or not, this sounds like a good plan.
You don't have to leave for 3 hours, since there is much less amount of yeast after decanting it will warm to room temperature in shorter time.

Could someone explain to me the steps to make a large starter for lagers.

Sulli said:

Yep, you can take an Erlenmeyer flask right off the flames and dunk it in an ice bath, I do it all the time. Although I'll admit, I was a little nervous the first time I did it.

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Sulli please don't take this quote as I am picking on you...Just want to clear something up for everyone.

Not all laboratory glassware is created equal folks...Some manufacturers of glassware that is typically used for high heat applications do not produce glassware that is capable of resisting high heat...

Take for example the Erlenmeyer flask we all use for our starters. The good companies properly temper the flasks for high heat applications...The companies that are looking to cut a few corners DO NOT. These lower quality flasks may shatter when used in high heat applications, and will certainly shatter when submerged in an ice bath directly after high heat application.

I know that midwest supplies recently had a batch of glassware that was not high heat resistant (they're are remedying that issue)...They told me directly over the phone not to buy one of their flasks if my intent was to use it for high heat application, and kindly redirected me to northern brewer, whom they knew had the proper glassware for my needs.
When buying Erlenmeyer flasks please make sure to ask the seller if they are high heat resistant (tempered).

DonutMuncher said:

Pretty cool graphic, nice job. I'll be making my first starter in the next day or two, so this is a nice little reference. I think I'll be refrigerating the final product and decanting most of the liquid out... because I'm paranoid about that 1L+ going into my beer (I know, it shouldn't affect the final product.. but I'm paranoid!).

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Hello, I make my starters out of Wheat DME, wheat helps with head retention and is very mild flavor, it should not affect the flavor of most beers.

Just my 2 cents

Cheers

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Iceman6409 said:

Could someone explain to me the steps to make a large starter for lagers.

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Iceman, this is the way I step a starter. I have two 2 liter flasks so I use them, I have a 1 liter that I could use for the first step but the 2 is just easier. If you use a 1 liter for the first flask cut the amounts in half for the first step.

1) make my mixture of DME and about 3/4s the water needed for me that is 130g of DME with just under a liter. Bring that to a boil and get a hot break, add the remaining water to get it to a total volume of just over 1.3 liters and cover with foil. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, at this point the foil on top of the flask is turning grey on the inside and everything is sterile. The level should have dropped to 1.3 liters. Cool and pitch yeast.

I leave it on a stir plate for 24 to 36 hours, remove from the stir plate and place in the freezer for 30 minutes and the fridge for 2 hours or the fridge for 6 to 24 hours (I like the fridge over night unless I'm in a hurry.

At some point in the other flask make a second starter batch using the hot break method, I make this one a little stronger because, 1) I will be diluted a little by the wort 2) i will be throwing this in to a high gravity beer and I want strong yeasties.

Once the second batch of starter has cooled to below 70 take the starter out of the fridge and pour off most of the clear wort, agitate to suspend the yeast and pour it in to the second flask. Put that on the stir plate for 24 to 48 hours and put that in the fridge and use as normal.

I can do a quick two step in about 40 hours by cutting cooling and stir times, If I have planned correctly it takes me about 5 days.

There are over 100 pages, so sorry if someone answered this. I was inspired by this thread and washed/harvested WLP002 last night. Am I correct in saying that if I pitch it next week I can just add it to the wort (after warming to room temp). Then if I make a batch in within 2 weeks I just add some DME and pitch it to the wort. After 2 weeks, a starter will be required. Have i got it right?

Also, here is a pic of my Harvest, a little uneven, I know :-(

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