Do I need a starter?

[Redwiggler]

I was planning on brewing a beer tonight but I forgot to make my starter yesterday. I'm making NB extra pale ale (0.045). I have washed us-05 yeast, about 1/2 inch in an a pint jar that is 3 weeks old. I made a starter a couple weeks back for a Irish red ale and it was fine. Should I delay my brewday or just pitch what I have. Thanks.

 

[solbes]

Was it stored in the fridge? If so I think you would be okay to direct pitch. But if you're really wanting to be sure, why not delay one day? Feed the starter some fresh DME to get it going again.

BTW, I have the same kit in my primary right now. Used harvested Bells yeast for it.

 

[hopsalot]

I have used us05 many without a starter and had a quick healthy fermentation. I do recommend starters though

 

[bessieflames]

Dry yeasts don't need a starter and I've heard that they suffer from them. Also-what is the purpose of saving and reusing US-05? It costs $3 per pack. I would say go get a fresh pack and pitch it.

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I was planning on brewing a beer tonight but I forgot to make my starter yesterday. I'm making NB extra pale ale (0.045). I have washed us-05 yeast, about 1/2 inch in an a pint jar that is 3 weeks old. I made a starter a couple weeks back for a Irish red ale and it was fine. Should I delay my brewday or just pitch what I have. Thanks.

Punching in your numbers and your yeast harvest date into Mr Malty, and if you truly have 1/2" (about 50 mL. in a pint jar) of high quality yeast, you are going to come up a little short. you need about 90 mL. of that thick yeast on the bottom. That's a little more than 1/3 cup. If your yeast has a bunch of hops and trub in it then obviously you will need even more. I would delay and make a starter.

 

[Redwiggler]

Was it stored in the fridge? If so I think you would be okay to direct pitch. But if you're really wanting to be sure, why not delay one day? Feed the starter some fresh DME to get it going again.

BTW, I have the same kit in my primary right now. Used harvested Bells yeast for it.

It has been in the fridge. I won't be able to brew again until Christmas day and my pipeline is in shambales. Wait, I just relized that I have a some dry coopers yeast (15g) in my inside fridge. Does anyone see a problem with using this. It has a best before date of 10/07/12 and it been in the fridge for a year. Never used this kind before, bought it when i started in case of a stalled fermentations.

 

[wolverinebrewer]

Dry yeasts don't need a starter and I've heard that they suffer from them. Also-what is the purpose of saving and reusing US-05? It costs $3 per pack. I would say go get a fresh pack and pitch it.

The OP isn't using dry yeast which was clearly stated and the OP already has the washed 05.
FWIW, my LHBS sells 05 for $3.95 a pack and its a 15 mile drive. For me, washed 05 makes perfect sense as I usually fill 8 pint jars from one cake for future brews. Then I most likely would wash each of those again. So it's a big savings.

 

[Redwiggler]

The OP isn't using dry yeast which was clearly stated and the OP already has the washed 05.
FWIW, my LHBS sells 05 for $3.95 a pack and its a 15 mile drive. For me, washed 05 makes perfect sense as I usually fill 8 pint jars from one cake for future brews. Then I most likely would wash each of those again. So it's a big savings.

I agree, my LHBS is 100 miles away. The savings do add up and I feel like i'm killing perfectly good yeast that have worked so hard to make me great beer without asking anything in return

 

[solbes]

If it was refrigerated, just pitch em. You might be a little under pitching, but then again this beer is relatively low gravity so you won't need a lot of them to get it done.

 

[paraordnance]

When I don't have a time for making starter in advance, or just simply feel lazy, I pour 1/2 gal of real wort after chilling in 1 gal jug and pitch my washed yeast there. It usually takes off within 8-12 hours. By then, main bulk of my wort cooled down to pitching temp and I pitch whole thing at high krausen. Works really well.

 

[rjsnau]

Might be a little late now but I would have recommended making a starter ASAP and letting it fermenent until you brewed that night. Usually they reach maximum cell counts in 12-18 hours so if you made it in the morning say at 8 or 9AM, brewed that night and just waited until you go to bed to pitch you should fine. I actually just did this with an Irish 1084 Wyeast pack a week ago and had to use a blowoff tube I had such a strong fermentation.

 

[bessieflames]

The OP isn't using dry yeast which was clearly stated and the OP already has the washed 05.
FWIW, my LHBS sells 05 for $3.95 a pack and its a 15 mile drive. For me, washed 05 makes perfect sense as I usually fill 8 pint jars from one cake for future brews. Then I most likely would wash each of those again. So it's a big savings.

To each his own, but it doesn't seem worth the effort to harvest, wash, and do a starter in order to save $3 per batch. The OP is worried about not having time to do a starter-my suggestion is to always have dry yeast available for instances like this.