Table sugar starter

Hi all....earlier today I visited my LHBS and picked up some yeast (WLP 802) for a pils I'm getting ready to brew....anyway I forgot to pick up some DME for the starter....can I use table sugar or confectionary sugar for the starter?? I don't know if it will have some ill effect on the yeast. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Folks on here make starters with table sugar frequently. It will not harm the yeast and when the starter is pitched into your fresh wort they will consume the sucrose and other simple sugars and move on to the maltose without a problem.

I have read that it is not the optimal situation since there is no maltose in the simple sugar starter. If that is all you have though......

I've started doing this. I truly don't think it is a problem over one generation of yeast. I think in the future this will be revealed to be one of the homebrewer myths.

I think in the lab, where yeast is grown for many successive generations, using sucrose might become a problem.

I've just started doing this, so I'll know a lot more in a year. I do add some yeast nutrients to the starter with the table sugar.

For lagers, you probably want to give the yeast the most ideal start possible. Using sucrose would not be conducive to that.

I don't know how inconvenient it is to revisit the LHBS, but some asian food stores also have malt extract. Alternatively, if you've got a pound of 2-row pale malt, you could do a simple BIAB mash on the stove to obtain your starter wort.

GNBrews said:

For lagers, you probably want to give the yeast the most ideal start possible. Using sucrose would not be conducive to that.

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We'll find out. I just made a sucrose-based large starter for a Bohemian Pilsner. It seemed to ferment out normally, but I haven't tested FG yet.

Also did the same for a 10g batch of Kolsch.

GNBrews said:

if you've got a pound of 2-row pale malt, you could do a simple BIAB mash on the stove to obtain your starter wort.

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True. I've done this (not on the stove, which is verboten in my house, but on the back patio). It's easier to just run off an extra gallon of wort from any batch of AG beer into an empty gallon milk jug and store in refrigerator until needed.

I wouldn't do it.

I think you would be better off taking a half gallon of your wort and making a starter from that and pitching the starter into the wort 24 hours later.