Easier way to make starters?

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Oscbert

Oscbert

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Maybe I am doing it wrong, but I think making a starter is a pain in the ass and time consuming.

My process... I mix the DME and water in an ehrlenmeyer flask. I get it to boil while constantly having to fight the boil over... (I have a 3000ML flask)

After the boil over dies down and I get a nice boil I put the erlenmeyer in an ice bath to cool to 70 degrees.

This whole process takes about a couple hours...

I like having starters, but hate making them. Eventually i want to get a pressure cooker, so I can always have sterlized wort on hand and just throw the yeast in, but that is a ways down the road.

Antifoaming agent will help with the boil overs, but doesn't solve the long cooling period in an ice bath.

How do you all make your starters and do you see any improvements I can make to make the process quicker?
 
Use a 2-3 liter saucepot to boil the water and DME instead of the flask. Boilovers will still be a risk, but will be minimized. You should stir it a bit and/or reduce the flame if it foams up too much. I've always done 7-8 minute boils, always had vigorous fermentations with no infections. Babysitting a saucepot for this amount of time is not asking much. Therefore, I don't think buying an antifoaming agent is worth it. The whole process including the boil, the cooling, and the pitching takes less than 30 minutes.

Put a sanitized heavy lid on the saucepot during the last minute, with the heat on very-very low. Then, shock the entire pot in an ice-bath in the sink to bring down to 65-70 F. Funnel the cool wort into a sanitized flask, top with sanitized foil, shake the hell out of it, add yeast, apply sanitized foam stopper, and shake intermittently for 2 days away from light. Cold crash your starter in the fridge the morning of brew day. Then, let it come to room temp while you're brewing. Gently decant/discard 90% of the clear starter wort prior to pitching the slurry.
 
One step to help reduce boil overs is to get your water boiling BEFORE you add your DME. This is easy in a pot and doable if not a little tedious in a flask.
 
boiling in a pot then transferring to flask is a great idea. probably cool faster also since surface has greater contact with the ice water. Thanks to you both!
 
The whole process for me takes maybe a half hour,, 45 at the most....bring dme to boil, drop in ice bath, let chill.....Pitch yeast.

I don't know why it's taking you so long. If you swirl in the ice bath (or just cold water in the sink) every couple minutes it cools it more rapidly.

I've done it both in flask or pot (I prefer pot) and hadn't noticed a significant time difference.
 
Couple hours!? You're not doing a 60 minute boil like on a brew day are you? I usually do a 10 minute boil.

Mix DME and water with a wisk in pan, once dissolved, add to heat. Bring to boil for 10 minutes. remove from heat, cover with foil, Sit in ice water bath in sink. I then spray the inside of my flask with my starsan bottle, dump starsan, pour in wort and pitch.

Probably 30-45 minutes.
 
i microwave my water for five or six minutes, let it cool to around 100 degrees. then i pour it and unheated LME straight into my sanitized gallon jug that i use for the starter. oh and then add the yeast. it takes a literal minute to pour the water and start the microwave, a literal minute to sanitize the bottle i use, and about three minutes to combine everything. so that's five minutes and no dirty dishes.
 
progmac said:
i microwave my water for five minutes, let it cool to around 100 degrees. then i pour it and unheated LME straight into my sanitized bottle that i use. oh and then add the yeast. i can do the process during a commercial break, hardly takes any time
Click to expand...

FYI it sounds like you aren't sanitizing your LME which is 1/2 the point of boiling the water.
 
progmac said:
i microwave my water for five or six minutes, let it cool to around 100 degrees. then i pour it and unheated LME straight into my sanitized gallon jug that i use for the starter. oh and then add the yeast. it takes a literal minute to pour the water and start the microwave, a literal minute to sanitize the bottle i use, and about three minutes to combine everything. so that's five minutes and no dirty dishes.
Click to expand...

If you're doing this, I wouldn't cool it to below 100....I would add the lme to the boiling or water above pasteurization temps, then let it cool.

Overall I don't think it's a bad way to go, except you're not steralizing the extract.
 
I boil in a flask for about 10 minutes. A little Fermcap will take care of any boil-over problems; use it! Personally I don't find the ice bath to be particularly annoying, but one thing I've done on occasion is to put the whole flask in the fridge (when it is a bit cooler than 212°F) overnight. The next morning I take it and the yeast out of the fridge, pitch, put on the stirplate, and let it warm to room temp in the kitchen. By the time I get home from work, its always nice and active.
 
Revvy said:
If you're doing this, I wouldn't cool it to below 100....I would add the lme to the boiling or water above pasteurization temps, then let it cool.

Overall I don't think it's a bad way to go, except you're not steralizing the extract.
Click to expand...
good point
 
foltster said:
FYI it sounds like you aren't sanitizing your LME which is 1/2 the point of boiling the water.
Click to expand...

i'm a three steps forward and two steps back kind of guy :)

jk, glad you and revvy noticed the flaw, will iron that out next time
 
Takes me about 15 minutes. Add water and DME to pot, boil for a couple of minutes, put the lid on, remove from heat and put in sink full of water and ice packs. Swirl around a bit, go have a smoke, come back and pour it into a growler and add yeast.
 
I usually measure out the water, put it on the stove, stir in the DME, bring to a boil, toss the saucepan in the frige, sit down and transfer my recipie from the shopping list to the brew day sheet, look up all the OG and FG numbers, figure out my mash and sparge volumes, watch TV for an hour and then check the wart temp. If down to pitching temps, I pour the yeast sample it into the saucepan and then pour the innoculated wort into the sanitized flask, toss it on the stir plate and go to bed. The longest time is cooling the wort.
 
Last time I did make two starters, but started them at the same time. The most time consuming part was keeping the wort from boiling out of the flask and making a huge mess.
I boiled them until they stopped foaming. I think that took awhile.

I think boiling in a pot will help a lot. I could also make enough wort for two starters in the same pot. I have gotten some great suggestions here!
 
If you have an electric tea kettle handy you can fill it up, click the switch and wander off and leave it. This gets everything to a boil quickly without worrying about anything boiling over, then pick up the process from there. Putting excess water in the kettle is handy to pour over things (like the pan lid) to sanitize to a certain extent.
 
There really isn't any need to rapidly cool starter wort, unless I'm mistaken. If for some reason I decide to use liquid yeast, I use a large pan with lid, boil for a couple of minutes, and leave on stove till it cools with lid on. Spray bottle of star San + funnel and old wine jug and a couple hours later I have a starter.

I also decant my starters and start to make them like a week in advance.
 
phoenixs4r said:
There really isn't any need to rapidly cool starter wort, unless I'm mistaken. If for some reason I decide to use liquid yeast, I use a large pan with lid, boil for a couple of minutes, and leave on stove till it cools with lid on. Spray bottle of star San + funnel and old wine jug and a couple hours later I have a starter.

I also decant my starters and start to make them like a week in advance.
Click to expand...

Cool it quickly and pitch yeast as quickly as possible to avoid contamination by unwanted organisms. Same reason you want to chill your wort quickly after brewing. The lid helps keep organisms out, but still may be at risk.
 
Oscbert said:
Great question! As long as you throw the entire starter in I would assume that you could just use the DME from your kit. I would wait for an answer from someone else first though because i'm not positive.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I have watched a few vids on it and they all seem to use some DME they have around the house. I thought there were different kinds of DME and I was right! I was confused for a second. But as someone mentioned above you can decant the starter so you're not really adding some strange DME that isn't part of the recipe.
 
themack22 said:
Thanks!

I have watched a few vids on it and they all seem to use some DME they have around the house. I thought there were different kinds of DME and I was right! I was confused for a second. But as someone mentioned above you can decant the starter so you're not really adding some strange DME that isn't part of the recipe.
Click to expand...

Right, but if the DME is from your recipe you shouldn't have any problem using that and adding it back to the beer when you pitch the yeast. No sense in spending more money for something you don't need.
 
Oscbert said:
Right, but if the DME is from your recipe you shouldn't have any problem using that and adding it back to the beer when you pitch the yeast. No sense in spending more money for something you don't need.
Click to expand...

I agree! :mug:

But the recipe I want to buy only comes with 9.15 lbs Gold malt syrup...
 
themack22 said:
I agree! :mug:

But the recipe I want to buy only comes with 9.15 lbs Gold malt syrup...
Click to expand...

Ah,... Yeah. It would work with LME (Liquid Malt Extract) but would probably be messy. All instructions for starters I have seen use Light DME (Dry Malt Extract) because it is much easier to handle and can be stored for longer periods of time. You might as well pick up a lb or 2 of it. Just keep it sealed and it will last a long time.
 
Oscbert said:
Last time I did make two starters, but started them at the same time. The most time consuming part was keeping the wort from boiling out of the flask and making a huge mess.
I boiled them until they stopped foaming. I think that took awhile.

I think boiling in a pot will help a lot. I could also make enough wort for two starters in the same pot. I have gotten some great suggestions here!
Click to expand...

Here's what I do. It works especially well for big starters and step ups.

Easy Microwave Starter


Give it a try, it works well. I also put them in the freezer and they're cool in about 30 minutes.
 
themack22 said:
Going to do my first starter.

Do I use the DME that comes with the kit or do I need to buy some DME to keep on hand for starters? Which one from NB?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=dme
Click to expand...

i buy a bag of the lightest DME to use for starters then you can use it in any color beer. i only make starters for a few styles of beer where there is no dry equivalent. my local brewery welcomes homebrewers who want to use whatever yeast they have on hand, just bring a container and they fill it. i agree with the OP a little bit, it can be a hassle to make starters but they do have their place. recently i stepped up the dregs from a bottle of beatification up to 3 liters, yeast you can't buy in the store. made a 10 gallon batch of cal common that i made a huge starter for since there is no dry equivalent. outside of that US-05 / 04 works for 95% of the beer i make, no starter needed.
 
Similar to what others have said. I boil the water and lme in a pan. I bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes. While the wort is boiling I put the flask on a burner with an inch or so of water and bring it to a boil to kill anything in the flask. Then I dump the wort in the flask and cool in the sink. 30 min or less.
 
I boil my water in a sauce pan, add the LME, and give it ten minutes. Put in some Yeast Nutrient as well. Then I cool it in my sink in an ice bath before I pour into my flask and add the yeast and stir bar. The whole process from start to finish takes 30 - 45 minutes. Most of the time I'll walk away and watch TV.

2 hours? What are you doing?
 
Oscbert said:
Right, but if the DME is from your recipe you shouldn't have any problem using that and adding it back to the beer when you pitch the yeast. No sense in spending more money for something you don't need.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with this. I feel you should pretty much always decant your starters to avoid the off flavors that can come from multiplying yeast.
 

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