2 stage yeast starter

[jesseroberge]

When I start my first batch of yeast starter, I let it go for 24h then chill it out....

Do I decant the wort and remix a new batch of fresh liquid ?

I was thinking that if I decant my first starter, won't the yeast fall out of the flask ?

I saw a video of a guy decanting on youtube but I wluld realy like to just add more wort to my stage 1 starter...

What do you guys think ?

 

[schematix]

Wait a few days and pour slowly. It'll become more sludgy. You will only decant 75-90% of the fermented wort.

 

[jesseroberge]

How long do I keep the stage one on the stir plate and fridge ?

 

[Gavin C]

If you have enough room that you don't need to decant just make a bigger starter.

Vessel size is usually the main reason people need to do stepped starters. There is an easy way to eliminate that. I have never needed to make a stepped starter as a result.

• Get a bigger vessel
• Use a stir plate.

If it's a case that you're building up from a very small amount of yeast e.g.: bottle dregs, then you should decant after the starter ferments out completely and cold crashing the starter leaving the bulk of the yeast flocculated at the bottom of the flask in a nice firm cake.

• Make starter volume v
• Ferment completely
• Chill
• Decant off spent starter beer (no food left in it)
• Add starter volume V (V>v)
• Ferment completely
• Chill
• Decant off spent starter beer (no food left in it) leaving a little to allow you to swish up the yeast cake into suspension (100-200ml)
• Add yeast biomass to batch of wort to make the planned beer

With starters, the cost benefit is eliminated if the cost of your DME/time/energy is outweighing the cost of buying more yeast. Stepped starters to me pretty much defeat the purpose; I simply am not willing to invest the time or money (DME) but to each their own.

 

[jesseroberge]

If you have enough room that you don't need to decant just make a bigger starter.

Vessel size is usually the main reason people need to do stepped starters. There is an easy way to eliminate that. I have never needed to make a stepped starter as a result.

• Get a bigger vessel
• Use a stir plate.

If it's a case that you're building up from a very small amount of yeast e.g.: bottle dregs, then you should decant after the starter ferments out completely and cold crashing the starter leaving the bulk of the yeast flocculated at the bottom of the flask in a nice firm cake.

• Make starter volume v
• Ferment completely
• Chill
• Decant off spent starter beer (no food left in it)
• Add starter volume V (V>v)
• Ferment completely
• Chill
• Decant off spent starter beer (no food left in it) leaving a little to allow you to swish up the yeast cake into suspension (100-200ml)
• Add yeast biomass to batch of wort to make the planned beer

With starters, the cost benefit is eliminated if the cost of your DME/time/energy is outweighing the cost of buying more yeast. Stepped starters to me pretty much defeat the purpose; I simply am not willing to invest the time or money (DME) but to each their own.

Thanks for the more than complete info ))

 

[jesseroberge]

Thanks gavin [emoji119][emoji106][emoji106]

 

[schematix]

If you're trying to grow a lot of yeast from a small amount, e.g. enough for 10G of lager from 1 vial, you'll need to pitch at about a 10:1 ratio first. Meaning that 1 vial will go into a (approx) 1.25L starter first, then crash and decant into the next volume (say 4L). Pitching 1 vial into 5L would be a big under pitch in most cases. Although if your vial is really fresh (within 30 days), i'd maybe consider it, but expect a long lag time to start).

 

[catdaddy66]

I use stepped starters but its not much more effort or cost as I will use wort from prior mashes instead of DME, though I keep some on hand just in case.

First step is with .5-.75L for 24 hours then I add another liter. I use them generally within 36-48 hours. I rarely decant because my total volume is less than two liters.

So far that has worked well.