36 hours to brew time: step up starter and pitch or refrigerate and pitch slurry?

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aeonderdonk

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So I am about 36 hours from pitching (tomorrow is brewday).

My started has been stepped up twice, and is now about a quart with some krausen floating on top.

Should I step up the starter again with another pint of DME made wort and pitch at high activity?

or

Should I throw it in the fridge and let the yeast settle, decant off the liquid, and pitch the slurry?

Additionally: I am trying a bell's oberon clone so I don't want to throw the flavor off too much so not sure if pitching 1.5 quarts of starter will be too much.

Thanks!
 
id let it settle at pitch temp and decant and pitch slurry directly. no need to ramp up further unless you have a 1.122 gravity like i did with my barleywine. that puppy had full fermentation activity for a month and that was with a double ramped starter slurry at pitch temp.
 
I ended up stepping it up and pitching about 30 hours later with a nice thick krausen on top after siphoning about half the liquid out of the middle to avoid getting any off flavors.


Final pitching volume was about a pint and my oberon clone has been bubbling nicely for the last 4.5 days :rockin:
 
I would have stepped it up as well. I don't ever refrigerate and pitch, don't feel the need, plus I don't like the temperature shock idea. Plus you want to pitch as many healthy cells as possible, so keep that yeast growing as long as you can! Of course, 36 hours before brewing is usually about when I get my starter going....
 
I cultured the yeast from bottles so I started a few days early. That and this was my first starter so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to compensate for any mistakes considering the LHBS is 30 minutes away.
 
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