I mangled my yeast starter - True story

My first yeast starter. Pretty sure I mangled it. 6 cups of water and 1/1/8 cup of dme. The balance of DME to water just doesn't seem right. It's all ok though, because I'm finishing a Stone RIS and have a Black Boss porter in the fridge

Seriously though, did I screw the pooch?

I added 1 pouch of Wyeast 1728 to this to retry an imperial stout that got infected.

metric its 10ml volume to 1g dme, so 2L (2000ml) Starter needs 200g dme, standard is around 6oz dme for 2 quarts

Your starter is fine, if my math was right. You got about 170 grams dme for 1.4 liters of water. Slightly high gravity for a starter, but it is going into a big beer also. The lttle guys should feel right at home.

IsoSacch said:

high gravity for a starter, but it is going into a big beer also. :

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Not to be argumentative, but, my understanding is that this is untrue. Yeast starters should be done at an "optimal" SG, regardless of what the SG of the beer it is intended for will be. Correct me if I'm wrong.

astronomical said:

Not to be argumentative, but, my understanding is that this is untrue. Yeast starters should be done at an "optimal" SG, regardless of what the SG of the beer it is intended for will be. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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Good question. I've heard both tales. One says for a starter you want a 1.040 - 1.020. The other says you want a higher gravity for bigger beers so they don't get shocked when they're dropped into a giant pool of sugar. I'm all ears.

I just finished the starter about an hour and a half ago though, so I can still boil and add more water. How much water should I add?

astronomical said:

Not to be argumentative, but, my understanding is that this is untrue. Yeast starters should be done at an "optimal" SG, regardless of what the SG of the beer it is intended for will be. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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Correct. The yeast in a starter should be optimum, no stress, that's why stir plates are good, builds healthy yeast cell walls with high oxygen rates, low alcohol so no stress, and optimum temperature which apparently is around 95 degrees for yeast (altho the beer would turn out terrible if you drink it) but you want happy cells in a starter, they will get stressed in a big beer so you don't wanna start them off unhappy (they aren't intellegent life forms that can learn stress management like we can lol)

All that being said, your starter will be ok, you over estimated the dme addition but probably won't stress the yeast too bad, but next time be more cautious. Happy yeast makes great beer, (except my hefeweizen which I'm trying to make unhappy yeast for great beer but that's another story)

It should have been 1.5 cups DME in 6 cups of water.... You're probably a bit under 1.040. If anything you need more DME, not more water. I say leave it.. It should be fine

Its a somewhat dry boring video but packed full of valuable info, watch it when your bored or play it on repeat while asleep (joking lmao) video is long (37ish minutes) but you will walk away with a lot of knowledge straight from wyeast themselves...I learned from it

I added about 1 1/2 cups of water. Hope I didn't ruin it.

Glad I added the water and thanks KuntzBrewing for the video. Straight from the mouth of a Wyeast employee.

I'd really like to thank all of the senior members on here for being so hospitable. Us newbies are stumbling onto your land and you're helping us. Thank you!

Yup that's why were all here, we all have questions and I love how we can come here and help each other. Chances are someone has done whatever your asking about and can help

This morning I made up another liter of wort and pitched the starter I made last night into that. After watching that video and realizing that there was no point in doing a 1 liter starter I had to do something. My rationalization was that the yeast I pitched last night has already began reproducing, so giving them some more food in the form of fresh oxygenated wort will just boost more reproduction. In 10 hours when it all gets pitched into the brew it should be ready to go...hopefully

9 hours after pitching the starter and there's a huge krausen. Awesome, looks like the yeast is having fun. Stuck my head in my fermentation chamber to get a closer look and got a big breath full of co2.