Starter Question

I made a quart starter last night, everything is going great. I brew tomorrow night. I brew half batches (2.5 gallons) so space in my small fermenter is valuble. I'm looking at loosing room from the quart starter enough for almost three beers. Plus with a couple hydro checks, I could be out a sixer before you know it. The fermenter holds more than just 10 quarts but I don't want to lost much head space either.

Question is;

Can I rack some of the wort from the top of the starter before I pitch on Ssturday?


Is should be mostly attenuated by late Saturday night and the yeast will or should be settled.

Any thoughts?

Yes you can. I did this last week. If the starter has stopped fermenting and krausen has subsided, put your starter in the fridge. The yeast will start dropping out and you can pour off the top of the starter. Place the starter back on the kitchen counter to warm up before you brew so it's at room temp.

Also, if you sanitize your hydro testing equipment well you coulld put it back into the fermenter after your reading.

Why are you taking hydrometer readings of your starter?

1/2 C DME and 2 C water = 1.040.

Tophe said:

Also, if you sanitize your hydro testing equipment well you coulld put it back into the fermenter after your reading.

Click to expand...

a wine theif makes a great test tube that you can float your hydro in. pull sample, test, dump sample right back in in one swift movement.

homebrewer_99 said:

Why are you taking hydrometer readings of your starter?

1/2 C DME and 2 C water = 1.040.

Click to expand...

I think he was referring to pulling samples of his brew for hydro readings. And dumping his sample and losing that much beer.


Wine theif's are great for pulling and dumping back into the fermenter.

homebrewer_99 said:

Why are you taking hydrometer readings of your starter?

1/2 C DME and 2 C water = 1.040.

Click to expand...

yeah, I just meant regular hydro measurments (OG-FG) But it's good news ot hear that I can rack off the wort to leave the yeast only for my starter AND that this will have been the first time I've learned someone who sanitized the hydro tube and hydrometer to pour back that sample.

Most have warned though, don't take the chance. Drink or dump so as to reduce infection potential....

Any further opinion on that?

Thanks for the input everyone...just trying to work out a few bugs (more like butterflies) before "full steam ahead".

homebrewer_99 said:

Why are you taking hydrometer readings of your starter?

1/2 C DME and 2 C water = 1.040.

Click to expand...

This will be the recipe for my next starter (2 Cups instead of four) I made a quart starter (4 cup) for a half batch and it's a little too much volume. I'll do the reduce strategy though. I guess rack everything off the yeast after dropping except just a little wort to cover the yeast cake, sound round?

krispy d said:

a wine theif makes a great test tube that you can float your hydro in. pull sample, test, dump sample right back in in one swift movement.

Click to expand...

I'm looking into one, sounds like what I need. There's a wine making shop locally.

lgtg said:

yeah, I just meant regular hydro measurments (OG-FG) But it's good news ot hear that I can rack off the wort to leave the yeast only for my starter AND that this will have been the first time I've learned someone who sanitized the hydro tube and hydrometer to pour back that sample.

Most have warned though, don't take the chance. Drink or dump so as to reduce infection potential....

Any further opinion on that?

Thanks for the input everyone...just trying to work out a few bugs (more like butterflies) before "full steam ahead".

Click to expand...

Most of us drink our "samples" after we record our readings. I also use all of my starters (leaving the liquid in to mix the yeast with).

You do not have to sanitize the hydrometer test tube, hydrometer, or your thermometer prior to use. You just need to sanitize the wine thief to take your sample then rinse it off or sanitize it again before putting it away to dry. I used to sanitize all of that then realized that the thief was not going back into the fermenter so anything it came into contact with was OK because I was going to drink the sample anyway...and take notes on it's flavor, etc.

That's what I've done thus far. I don't really need the thief as my mini-fermenter has a spigot to get the tube filled. Would you agree to reducing the starter volume to 2 cups though? (future)

That really depends on the strength of the brew you are making. If it has a higher gravity than 1.040 then a larger starter is recommended.

Okay, that makes sense to me. I'm brewing an oatmeal stout (PM) that is calc'd to be 65 at OG, so it looks like I made the right move using 2 quarts. Will it still seem okay to rack some off to reduce the volume to 1 quart at pitching considering that the starter has attenuated and flocculation (?) is finished?