All grain starter & lag time questions.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GodsStepBrother

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
1,261
Reaction score
30
I have been doing starters with grain, I haven't seen anyone mention it and I have tried searching with no luck. Anyways in a nutshell I mash 1lb of base malt for an hour at about 150 degrees, and then boil the collected wort for 15 minutes, cool it down and add my washed yeast to the growler filled with wort.

First Question: Is there is any negative effectives to doing it this way (though I haven't noticed any?). I just see everyone doing starter's with DME, I find it cheaper to buy an extra lb of 2 row. I'm pretty sure it is easier to use the DME though.

Second Question: I have also noticed if I do a starter, and let it ferment all the way (to the point that the yeast settle to the bottom) I get a lag time of about 8 hours or so. However if I make the starter one day in advance, and pitch the yeast while it is vigorously fermenting, I have a lag time of abut 40 minutes to an hour!

Just curious if anyone does starters with grain, and how long there lag time usually is.
 
There is noting wrong with making a starter from grain. SOme no-chill people use the actual wort from brew day to make starters, and some other people save a little wort from today's brew to make a starter for next week's brew.

I think most people use DME as a convenience thing. I wouldn't want to spend an hour and a half making a starter if I could do it in 30 minutes with DME instead.
 
I figured DME was used so much because it was conveniant.

As for pitching the yeast while it still eating the starter, is there any draw backs to that? Am I correct in assuming the yeast multiply to there limit before they start eating the starter? Or is there a bigger yeast count after it is done eating?
 
Nothing wrong with an all grain starter. As long as your OG is around 1.040 you should be fine. I personally use DME just because its easy.

As far as your second question you actually don't want to see activity that quickly. According to Jamil and Chris White that means you have overpitched. Thy say as a result each individual cell will not be as healthy at the end of fermentation. As a result yeast may not clean up some of precursors produced during the growth phase like diacetyl and acetaldehyde.

Now personally I have signs of fermentation in that time as well. I didn't notice anything wrong with those beers. One could even argue it is better for the beer since there isn't a chance for any bacteria or wild yeast to spoil things. I would recommend using a yeast pitching rate calculator if you don't already. Since I started my lag time is between 2-4 hours which is suppose to be great. Hope this helps.
 
Back
Top