Pitch starter at high krausen or after yeast have settled?

In some places I've read to make a starter 12 to 24 hours before brewing. Then the starter is pitched at high krausen into the fermenter.

In other places I've read to make the starter several days ahead of time, settle the yeast out in a fridge, then decant off the top part of the starter and just pitch the yeast from the bottom.

I assume both methods work reasonably well otherwise so many people wouldn't use each method. So... which way do you do it and why?

I don't make many starters, but when I do, I let the yeast settle, decant most of the liquid, swirl the rest to get the cake broken up, and dump the slurry.

Mainly, I do this because I don't want to dump a bunch of wort that ISN'T my actual recipe into the fermenter. I just want the yeast.

I'm with Walker. I wouldn't brew with 10% less malt or hops than I'd intended, and I'm not going to dilute my beer with 10% oxidized starter beer.

With an ale the one liter of starter wort doesn't matter to me (I might even add it into my calculations.) With a lager the gallon of tooty fruity gets tossed.

I have been doing no-chill with real wort starters for liquid yeast batches. For those, I do not hesitate to pitch the whole thing. Usually, I like to pitch the next day as soon as the wort reaches pitching temp, so the timing gets me to high krausen.

With starters from DME, I usually cold crash, decant, and pitch the slurry.

If you are lucky enough to catch a starter at high krausen when it's time to pitch, then do it. I've only been that lucky tiwce. ANd both of those beers took off right away.

If you use the same extract for the starter that you use for the wort, what difference does it make if you pitch the whole thing? Its all good. I don't understand why you would throw away the liquid left over from the starter. It still has sugars in it that haven't been broken down. It is the same stuff that is going in the primary. I'm just curious.

a10t2 said:

I'm with Walker. I wouldn't brew with 10% less malt or hops than I'd intended, and I'm not going to dilute my beer with 10% oxidized starter beer.

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It’s not oxidized if the yeast is still aerobic. Usually yeast goes anaerobic after high krausen.

The way I look at it, you've added O2 to your wort, so pitching an aerated starter shouldn't hurt much. I do like to decant and pitch though to keep my calcs on target.

It depends and I think you'll get a lot of differing opinions that really aren't that dissimilar.

For me, it all depends on timing. If I can catch the starter at high krauzen and I'm not concerned about the flavor impact it might have (usually nominal) on the batch, I'll toss it all in.

If I'm not planning to brew for a couple of days I'll refrigerate the starter to clear the beer and then decant it off. This is also my preferred method if I'm doing research (comparing beers), brewing a lager or light ale, or brewing for comp.

If time permits me I'll also add an additional step where I'll reactivate the decanted starter by feeding it some additional wort prior to pitching. This helps to increase the number of cells and decreases the lag time before active fermentation. This also helps verify the viability if it's been sitting for an extended period of time.

I hope this helps.

i wait till it settles and pitch it all.

I made the mistake once of not waiting long enough, decanting and then pitching. I got a fermenter with lazy yeast and a stuck fermentation.

King of Cascade said:

It’s not oxidized if the yeast is still aerobic.

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That's true as long as you aren't using a stirplate and/or air pump. My starters taste gross.

+1 I use a sitrplate and the starter beer tastes awful. Maybe unstirred ones aren't so bad...

King of Cascade said:

It’s not oxidized if the yeast is still aerobic. Usually yeast goes anaerobic after high krausen.

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That isn't necessarily true, yeast certainly do not have an unlimited ability to reduce oxygen.

I never pitch starter wort but sometimes for a lager I decant and add a couple liters of the wort from the batch and let it sit while the wort is chilling to pitching temp. With an ale, I am at pitching temp post chilling most of the year and about half an hour later in the hottest months so I don't use that method.

remilard said:

That isn't necessarily true, yeast certainly do not have an unlimited ability to reduce oxygen.

I never pitch starter wort but sometimes for a lager I decant and add a couple liters of the wort from the batch and let it sit while the wort is chilling to pitching temp. With an ale, I am at pitching temp post chilling most of the year and about half an hour later in the hottest months so I don't use that method.

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"yeast certainly do not have an unlimited ability to reduce oxygen"

True, but wort doesn’t have an unlimited ability to keep O2 in saturation. Even with a stir plate it will be difficult to get the 21% oxygen in our atmosphere to over oxygenate your wort. Anyways the oxygen is displaced by the CO2 that is being generated in the starter.

I usually aerate my beers for the first 12 hours after pitching and add the entire starter at high kruasen and my beers are not oxidized. In fact they are clean and well attenuated.

King of Cascade said:

"yeast certainly do not have an unlimited ability to reduce oxygen"

True, but wort doesn’t have an unlimited ability to keep O2 in saturation. Even with a stir plate it will be difficult to get the 21% oxygen in our atmosphere to over oxygenate your wort. Anyways the oxygen is displaced by the CO2 that is being generated in the starter.

I usually aerate my beers for the first 12 hours after pitching and add the entire starter at high kruasen and my beers are not oxidized. In fact they are clean and well attenuated.

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oxidation and oxygen in solution are not the same thing.

mb2696 said:

+1 I use a sitrplate and the starter beer tastes awful.

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Have you tasted your wort a day or two after it starts fermenting? It'll taste pretty much the same.

mb2696 said:

oxidation and oxygen in solution are not the same thing.

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Not sure where you are going with this but Yes you are correct sir…

AZ_IPA said:

Have you tasted your wort a day or two after it starts fermenting? It'll taste pretty much the same.

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Sorry, I don't follow. The same as what?

A day or two after it starts fermenting is about when it stops fermenting and moves to the fridge. That's when I've tasted it, and it's pretty unpleasant.

a10t2 said:

Sorry, I don't follow. The same as what?

A day or two after it starts fermenting is about when it stops fermenting and moves to the fridge. That's when I've tasted it, and it's pretty unpleasant.

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I meant, have you tasted your actual beer (not the starter) 2 days into active fermentation. It tastes like ass as well.

AZ_IPA said:

I meant, have you tasted your actual beer (not the starter) 2 days into active fermentation. It tastes like ass as well.

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I have, and you're right, it does. It doesn't taste like ass once fermentation is finished though.