Decanting a big starter

I'm building up a big starter for a double batch of lager. I started with 2L and am going to decant before stepping it up again.

Since the 5L flask has such a wide base, I always end up swirling a bunch of yeast back into suspension while tipping it over to decant. Then I remembered how I washed yeast from a carboy and did the same thing with the flask.

After taking it off the stirplate, I propped it up with some books to keep it from rolling off the table. I'll give it a day or so to flocculate, then decant and refresh it with more wort.

It probably doesn't make a huge difference, but if I'm going to the effort to make a giant starter, I'm going to do my best to keep as much of that yeast as possible.





-Joe

good lookin yeast

I left mine in the fridge 2 days before decanting and never have a problem of picking visible yeast off of the cake while decanting. Do you cool before decanting?

I do 4L (flask) starters and chill 24 hours before decanting. Clear separation of beer and yeast. Very little yeast comes out when I dump the beer.

I don't chill when I'm decanting to step up the starter as I'm trying to reduce dormant/wake up/dormant/wake up cycles. Again, it may not make a difference but it makes me sleep better at night.

And even when I cool before decanting, I still get some yeast swirling up into suspension. This will make it easier to decant more clear wort off for me. I'm glad to hear that you guys don't have that problem though.

Thanks,

-Joe

I took some 1/4" bendable copper tubing and made a mini-racking cane to decant my starters. Hook up some 1/4" vinyl tubing and I can rack off the spent wort right to the top of the yeast cake.