Decanting yeast starter

When decanting a yeast starter should the starter be allowed to do its thing for two or three days and then put it in the fridge to let all the yeast settle at the bottom? How long should the starter sit in the fridge to allow it to settle? Also can the excess beer just be poured out or should a siphon be used?

there are a couple different approaches to starters. one approach is to get the yeast active and pitch the active yeast into the batch. another is to get the population of yeast up to a bigger number than the packet came with originally so you have enough to ferment. The first way requires you pitch the whole starter because the yeast is every where within the liquid and they are actively going. these starters are normally started the night before. if you simply want to grow the population and pitch only the yeast I would let the starter ferment for 3 days and chill for one. I would simply pour the remaining liquid until the yeast starts to flow out. any remaining liquid would be negligible.

kcbrewmeister said:

When decanting a yeast starter should the starter be allowed to do its thing for two or three days and then put it in the fridge to let all the yeast settle at the bottom? How long should the starter sit in the fridge to allow it to settle? Also can the excess beer just be poured out or should a siphon be used?

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I let my starters go for 24 hours, then let them settle in the fridge overnight. Remove the container from the fridge when you start brewing, gently decant (as in pour off, not siphon) most of the the "beer" which will leave you a yeast cask at the bottom that you can swirl around when you're ready to pitch.

There is an absolutely fantastic how-to video "Billy Broas" made that makes creating a starter really, really easy: http://billybrew.com/how-to-make-a-yeast-starter

here's the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-make-yeast-starter-video-177635/

I have previously been doing the method of pitching the whole starter, liquid and all, but I wanted to try making a bigger starter and just pitching yeast. How much wort should be used for this method for 5 gallon batches?

Personally, I prefer to siphon out the starter beer. You can get more liquid out this way without disturbing the yeast layer. As for cold crash time, over night should be good. Just throw it in the fridge the night before brew day and by the time you're ready to pitch it should nice and clear. Make sure you leave enough liquid behind to swirl up the yeast and make a slurry though or you'll have a hard time getting the yeast out.

kcbrewmeister said:

I have previously been doing the method of pitching the whole starter, liquid and all, but I wanted to try making a bigger starter and just pitching yeast. How much wort should be used for this method for 5 gallon batches?

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depends on your planned OG. Try using a yeast calculator like Mr. Malty.

kcbrewmeister said:

I have previously been doing the method of pitching the whole starter, liquid and all, but I wanted to try making a bigger starter and just pitching yeast. How much wort should be used for this method for 5 gallon batches?

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http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Is there any advantage to making a bigger starter than mrmalty recommends or will that produce negative effects?

I've done both pitching the whole thing and decanting - haven't noticed a difference in results (i.e. lag time, attenuation, flavor, etc.). If your starter is bigger than 1.5 liters, I think decanting is the way to go. If it is 1.5 liters or less, I think you can get away with just pitching the whole thing without it affecting your flavor.

Definitely use Mr. Malty's pitching rate calculator (at the link Tinga provided) to determine what volume of starter you need for the batch you are making. Boil 1 gram of DME for every 10 mL of water that Mr. Malty suggests, which works out to 100 grams of DME for a 1 liter starter - that will give you a starter gravity of about 1.040, which is ideal for giving your yeast a good amount of sugars to feed on and multiply with, but not too heavy to stress them out.

I bought 1/4" polyethylene tubing from Home Depot to attempt decanting my next starter (1/2 gallon starter for a 3 gallon lager) with a 3' chunk. That tubing is very stiff so it should be easy to siphon near the surface and next to a wall to avoid disturbing the yeast.

I do have noticed difference by pitching the entire yeast starters or decanting.
The decanted one usually end up with lower attenuation, I'm assuming that when I decant the "beer" from the starter I'm loosing most of the last floculant yeast, so now when I make big starters i decant half of the liquid.

DSmith said:

I bought 1/4" polyethylene tubing from Home Depot to attempt decanting my next starter (1/2 gallon starter for a 3 gallon lager) with a 3' chunk. That tubing is very stiff so it should be easy to siphon near the surface and next to a wall to avoid disturbing the yeast.

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It's not really necessary. If you pour in a smooth motion, after cold crashing 24 hours, the live yeast stay in a pretty tight layer. You really don't lose much.

pabloj13 said:

It's not really necessary. If you pour in a smooth motion, after cold crashing 24 hours, the live yeast stay in a pretty tight layer. You really don't lose much.

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I'm sure you are correct. I've poured off all my 1L starters in a 2L flask and it's taken vigorous swirling to get the yest cake resuspended after 24+ hours in the fridge.

I'm trying a 1 gallon jug for the first time and just want to siphon down to about 500mL just to try that technique and keep most of that starter beer out of my pilsner. A run-through with water showed that it took a few minutes of siphon with that small diameter tube. I'll report back if it's a total failure.

I etched my gallon jug with 250ml volumes in preparation for this one.

DSmith said:

I'm sure you are correct. I've poured off all my 1L starters in a 2L flask and it's taken vigorous swirling to get the yest cake resuspended after 24+ hours in the fridge.

I'm trying a 1 gallon jug for the first time and just want to siphon down to about 500mL just to try that technique and keep most of that starter beer out of my pilsner. A run-through with water showed that it took a few minutes of siphon with that small diameter tube. I'll report back if it's a total failure.

I etched my gallon jug with 250ml volumes in preparation for this one.

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I use gallon jugs as well. Nice etching, I used tape and a pen. I use the same size tube to siphon off the starter as do to transfer beer. The faster siphon doesn't disturb the yeast layer, but you have to watch very closely and start tilting the jug just before the nipple starts sucking air. You can get almost all the beer out this way. I pressure up small jars of sterile water to make my slurry with. I do this becasue I use pressure canned wort on a stir plate with frozen yeast and the starter beer always smells horrible. Not to mention I don't want all that extra glycerine in the beer.

I think the longer you let the yeast starter crash the better. I find if I have time to leave the starter in the fridge say a week or so the layer of yeast is so compact that its very easy to just pour off and that way I am not pouring so many yeast down the drain.

kcbrewmeister said:

When decanting a yeast starter should the starter be allowed to do its thing for two or three days and then put it in the fridge to let all the yeast settle at the bottom? How long should the starter sit in the fridge to allow it to settle? Also can the excess beer just be poured out or should a siphon be used?

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I have an approach that differs slightly from the methods described above.
I make the starter a couple of days before brew day. If it settles to clear, I do not refrigerate it. If it is still cloudy, I put it in the fridge the night before brew day to drop the yeast. If I am making a lager, I just put in my temp control fridge at 50 degrees.

On the morning that I am going to brew, I decant off the starter's liquid and prepare 100ml of fresh wort from LME. I chill this new wort to the same temp of the starter, (allow the starter to warm if necessary) oxygenate the new wort, and add to the starter and mix well.

By the time I am done brewing, the starter has a FULL head of foam on top and is very actively fermenting and when I add the starter to the beer there is virtually no lag time at all.

The only caution to add is that to ensure that your wort is at the fermentation temperature prior to pitching the yeast. You won't have any lag-time to get the fermenter to the proper temp. I use a theromowell in a fridge because I find that such a fast start will cause the beer to rapidly warm due to fermentation. Adding a water bath around the fermenter also helps moderate the increased temp as well.

Since adopting the procedure, I have eliminated all of my fermentation related problems of attenuation or slow ferments and with lager brews it has significantly improved the final flavor of the beers.