First Yeast Starter (pics)

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TheBroonery

TheBroonery

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I've been brewing for a long time but last night was my first successful attempt to do a starter for the batch I plan to brew this weekend. I was using a 1L flask with 1/2cup DME and 1 pint of water, and it did boil over a bit, but as of this morning fermentation is evident with tiny co2 bubbles rising off the yeast cake on the bottom of the flask. It's WLP800 Pilsner Lager yeast incase you were wondering. Enjoy!

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You wont get much cell growth if you pitched a whole vial into 1 pint of wort but atleast you will get metabolism going.

Nice pics.
 
+1 to the Mr malty calculator. My last lager I needed to make up a 3500ml starter on a stir plate starting from 1 vial.
 
I'd much rather do a bigger one but even 1 pint boiled over in a 1 liter flask. I'm thinking I need a 3 or 4 liter one. Is a 1 liter flask useful for anything?
 
I pretty much only use a 1L flask when I have a pack of yeast that was manufactured really recently, and I'm pitching into a low gravity (1.060 or less) ale. Basically, it just wakes the yeast up, gets a little bit of reproduction, and allows them to get some nutrients before beginning fermentation.

You can get 1L to boil in a 1L flask - you just have to get through the hot break and be careful... just like brewing.
 
i used a 1000ml flask to make a starter the other day i added 1/2cup of DME to around 800ml of water boiled in a pan funneled wort into flask and cooled flask down to 70degrees at which point i pitched my yeast to it. My yeast cake is developing nicely been under 24hrs still but i plan on brewing late tomorrow afternoon at which point it will be 40hrs of fermentation before i pitch the starter
 
Use a double boiler type method to keep from boiling over. (Put the flask into a pot of water and boil the water). Just boil for five or ten extra minutes; it feels better. :)
Seriously, you have to boil for longer to get the wort up over 200 deg F. It's a good idea to use a thermometer in the starter wort to make sure it's up to temp before starting the timer.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, This will be for a 5 gallon batch I'm going to do on Saturday. It should still be an improvement over just pitching the White Labs vial into the cooled wort, right?
 
TheBroonery said:
It should still be an improvement over just pitching the White Labs vial into the cooled wort, right?
Click to expand...

Perhaps slightly. You should have used a bit more wort as others have said. I always use the mr. malty calculator to figure out how much exactly. :ban:
 
you can always make your starter wort in a regular pot and then add to the 1L flask so you don't have to worry about boiling over in the flask - only concern would be possible overflow of krausen
 
24 hours after the boil things look ok but calm.. if you look very closely you can see tiny co2 bubbles rising and there is just a thin sparse layer of krausen on the surface, with a 1/2" deep yeast cake on the bottom of the flask. Not much different than 12 hours after the boil. I just hope I didn't ruin the yeast, as I don't have a backup for this weekend's brew. I've been in the hobby for nearly 8 years but this is only my 2nd time tinkering with liquid yeast. First time it worked great by just adding the vial to the cooled wort, but fermentation did take almost 36 hours to begin.

The batch this is for btw is a light lager with a projected SG of 1.048. A clone of Keo Lager To be exact.
 
TheBroonery said:
24 hours after the boil things look ok but calm.. if you look very closely you can see tiny co2 bubbles rising and there is just a thin sparse layer of krausen on the surface, with a 1/2" deep yeast cake on the bottom of the flask. Not much different than 12 hours after the boil. I just hope I didn't ruin the yeast, as I don't have a backup for this weekend's brew. I've been in the hobby for nearly 8 years but this is only my 2nd time tinkering with liquid yeast. First time it worked great by just adding the vial to the cooled wort, but fermentation did take almost 36 hours to begin.

The batch this is for btw is a light lager with a projected SG of 1.048. A clone of Keo Lager To be exact.
Click to expand...

You didn't ruin anything! You just didn't give them enough food to grow much. :mug:
 
TheBroonery said:
I'd much rather do a bigger one but even 1 pint boiled over in a 1 liter flask. I'm thinking I need a 3 or 4 liter one. Is a 1 liter flask useful for anything?
Click to expand...

I still use my 1 Liter flask for boiling priming sugar solutions when bottling. They're a good size for that use, since sugar water doesn't get nearly as rowdy when boiling. I will never make another starter in a 1 Liter though - just too small, and I constantly have to turn down the burner or move the flask off of it to keep from boiling over. I now use a 2 Liter flask for starters.
 
TheBroonery said:
I'd much rather do a bigger one but even 1 pint boiled over in a 1 liter flask. I'm thinking I need a 3 or 4 liter one. Is a 1 liter flask useful for anything?
Click to expand...

Is that third picture with all of the bubbles your boil? You don't need that much heat or that vigorous of a boil. All that you need is to get it to your boiling temperature and hold it.

What type of stove is that? I use gas and when my flask reaches 212 I all but turn the flame off. I have a thermometer in the to be wort and sometimes if you give it a lil stir and introduce air it will start to boil. With other heat sources you might need a buffer. All that you need to see are tiny bubbles coming to the surface. As someone says after the break forms you can get a bit more aggressive if you want to. I believe that break material forms nucleation points for the air bubbles.
 
yinzer2 said:
Is that third picture with all of the bubbles your boil? You don't need that much heat or that vigorous of a boil. All that you need is to get it to your boiling temperature and hold it.

What type of stove is that? I use gas and when my flask reaches 212 I all but turn the flame off. I have a thermometer in the to be wort and sometimes if you give it a lil stir and introduce air it will start to boil. With other heat sources you might need a buffer. All that you need to see are tiny bubbles coming to the surface. As someone says after the break forms you can get a bit more aggressive if you want to. I believe that break material forms nucleation points for the air bubbles.
Click to expand...

Yep, as you can see the stove setting is only at 50%. Lousy electric coil!

I've since began using my brewpot as a sanitization vessel which I can fill with idophor and then submerge both the flask and a funnel, then just boil the starter wort in a normal saucepan. Then it's more or less like a mini batch of beer!
 
What is the point of boiling the starter? I've never boiled a starter and have never had any problems. I can see why it may be beneficial to hold at pasteurization temps to kill of any potential infections.
 

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