Dump entire contents of starter into the primary?

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mayday1019

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I made my first starter about 6 hours ago and i am already getting nice activity out of the airlock.

I have the starter in a 1/2 gallon growler. Should I just dump all of the contents (liquid included) into the primary? I have seen people talking about dumping the liquid out first, then pouring the yeast cake in.

IS the yeast cake the trub on the bottom, or the floating cells on the top?

What do you recommend?
 
The yeast are all over the place if your starter is actively fermenting (some will settle out, some are suspended in liquid, some are in the kraeusen). What I like to do is put my starter in the fridge when it is at high kraeusen a day or two before pitching (this takes a bit of timing, but isn't too difficult). This will cause the yeast to settle down to the bottom in a nice yeast cake and the liquid may be siphoned off the top leaving just the slurry.

However, if the timing is off or for whatever reason I have a kraeusening starter (non-chilled) and it's time to pitch, I usually just dump it all in, especially if it's around a liter or so. In that case you would be throwing away yeast if you tried to decant the liquid.
 
Thanks for the response! Is "high krausen" when the airlock is the most active, or whne the krausen is at its thickest?
 
Since we are dealing with top fermenting yeasts, thick & most active should be about the same time.
 
For ales I dump the whole lot in after a day or two, If it's only a couple of pints the effect on the taste is going to be negligible. If it's a lager I'll wait for it to ferment out then just pitch the cake plus an inch of liquid on top.

You've made a starter which is the important part, if your sanitation was good don't worry too much about the minutiae :)
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
The yeast are all over the place if your starter is actively fermenting (some will settle out, some are suspended in liquid, some are in the kraeusen). What I like to do is put my starter in the fridge when it is at high kraeusen a day or two before pitching (this takes a bit of timing, but isn't too difficult). This will cause the yeast to settle down to the bottom in a nice yeast cake and the liquid may be siphoned off the top leaving just the slurry.

However, if the timing is off or for whatever reason I have a kraeusening starter (non-chilled) and it's time to pitch, I usually just dump it all in, especially if it's around a liter or so. In that case you would be throwing away yeast if you tried to decant the liquid.
Click to expand...

I agree. If krausen is still going good then dump the whole mess, otherwise decant the liquid and pitch the cake. I've done it both ways, because for some reason for me it's a crap shoot trying to determine how long before brew day to make my starter; somtimes it's still at krausen and sometimes it's done.:)
 

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