First time yeast starter Help

[Jaybrew226]

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting. I wanted to run this situation by someone and see what they thought. I'm new to brewing. Brewed a couple batches back in college and I am just getting back into it... 12 years later.

I'm brewing my second batch and decided I wanted to try using a starter utilizing a stir plate. I download Beersmith 2 and checked out the Yeast Starter Tool. I'm brewing a lower gravity beer, 1.046. I imputed all my ingredients into beersmith and it stated I could use a 0.5L starter utilizing a stir plate. I only needed 185 billion cells and a 0.5L starter would give me 285, over pitching but I didn’t see it as an issue. Does this sound right?

I have a 2L flask and boiled 2 oz of DME in approximately 500mL of water. Cooled the flask in a water bath to around 74F and pitched a Wyeast 1007 activator smack pack into the mix (pack ballooned up nice prior to pitching). I placed my starter on the stir plate and it was working fine for about the first 24hrs. My stir plate is DIY and is being difficult and keeps throwing my stir bar now. Since I’m not using the stir plate anymore I wonder if I should boil 4oz of DME and 1L of water, cool it and add it to my flask for the last 8hrs until i brew. Or should I just let it ride and pitch it tomorrow as is. At that point the starter will have been going about 32hrs. Where do I go from here?

 

[Sulli]

I'm pretty sure you can't get 285 billion cells from a .5L starter, in fact you won't get much growth at all.
Aside from that, If your stir plate was stirring the fermenting wort for 24 hrs. It's probably fermented out. I would just pitch those babies.

 

[j1laskey]

I make my starters is an growler, and shake every time I remember. Always works for me.

 

[j1laskey]

I will be pitching that in about 45 mins. It's the dregs of 4 allagash whites that I have been expanding for about 2 weeks now

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

Your magnets probably aren't close enough to each other. This was my issue with my DIY stirplate. As soon as I got them as close together as I could without interference it worked like a charm.

 

[Jaybrew226]

Do your guys starters always get a krausen on them? Mine was a little foamy but nothing crazy.

I'm using one of those hard drive magnets on my stir plate and using a 2 inch stir bar. I think the stir bar might be too big. I have a 1 inch but it spins too fast and throws it. I think one issue is that the water level is so low, with 500ml in a 2000ml flask.

Check out this picture from Beersmith. It show my cell yield with a 500ml starter. Am I doing something wrong? The stir plate check box makes the count go way up. without a stir plate I would of needed a 1.5L starter.

 

[Sulli]

I see now. I forgot Brad Smith sets his stir plate multiplier at a default number of 2.66, which would indeed give you 285 billion cells. Seems a little high to me, but I'm no expert. I use Beersmith as well, and I set my stir plate multiplier to 1.62. Guess it all depends on who you want to listen to. Mr. Malty has a much lower multiplier, and from what I've read in Chris White's "Yeast" book, 2.66 is on the high end. Someone really needs to do a good scientific study on how a stir plate affects yeast growth. It's still pretty controversial. Your starter is fine though.

 

[DarkPhyre]

i normally do 3 steps.
the first one i do 500mL for 12 hours
1L for 24
1.6L for 12 then pitch.

Of course I let set for half hour decant and add new DME.

*depending on yeast age and expected OG.

 

[DarkPhyre]

also use http://yeastcalc.summitwoodwork.com/ instead of beer smith, IMO.

 

[ChadChaney]

I just did my first 2 batches with starters lately too, and had some similar issues. I do not have a stirplate so I can not help there, but in reference to the foaming/krasuen here is what I did. I made 2 1 Liter starters for a Douple IPA, don't remember the OG but it was high, used 1 smak pack of Pacman per starter and shook every time I walked by. Towards the end, I could not shake to hard or it would foam out the top, had constant bubbles from the bottom and noticeable yeast growth. I did not pitch the whole batch, saved about 6 oz, guessing, of slurry and pitched into a half gallon oddball/experimental batch, which was super high OG. I let mine ferment for close to 24 hrs and then pitched the whole thing into the wort and had an incredible fermentation. It started in about an hour and had to remove airlock and install blowoff tube! For my normal OG IPA I did a one liter starter of Pacman and did the same thing and about 8 hrs later had to install a makeshift blowoff because the bucket lid was so swollen, extremely violent fermentation. I would bet you are safe to pitch your yeast, and do yourself a favor and do a blowoff tube from the start. I left my DIPA in primary for 2 weeks and it settled well and had a super huge packed cake that i washed and saved 5 containers of yeast for future yeast. I hit my FG on the nose, even though my OG was a tad high, Pacman is a beast! I used Mr. Malty as a starting point, but it told me to pitch 8 smak packs of Pacman into the normal OG IPA based on the date on the pack, even though it was only 3 months old. I did not do that obviously,and I hit FG in 6 days, but I am letting it finish out and clean up till 14 days. The DIPA wort was the clearest I have ever had, I usually move to secondary after about 6-7 days, but I am going to start not doing secondary, unless dry hopping like this one.

Just my 2 cents, hope it helped some.

 

[nate456789]

also use http://yeastcalc.summitwoodwork.com/ instead of beer smith, IMO.

Very nice Calc.
This one makes more sense to me then the other ones I have used. I have an old smack pack and this tool calculated the optimum growth. In 3 steps it would be back to solid usable count. Very clear on what you need to do for growing your yeast.
I wish I could get it for my phone.

 

[Jaybrew226]

Fermentation took off a lot quicker than my last batch. I checked in on it at around 7:30pm last night and it had a nice Krausen and at midnight the foam was coming up into the airlock. I transitioned to a blow off tube and woke up to the picture below. Should I change the water on this?

I would imagine the water is getting fairly thick. The water level increased a bit and I've been trying to keep the end about 1 inch under the water level of the milk jug. Any suggestions here?

 

[Sulli]

heh heh, looks like you had plenty O' yeast. Just out of curiosity, what temperature is that fermenting at?
I'd change the water, if not just to keep the mess down.

 

[Jaybrew226]

That was another issue I had. I cooled my partial boil of 2.5gal down to 98F and added my top off water which only brought down the total temp to 79-80F. I plugged the carboy and waited for about an hour to see what the temp dropped to and it was only down a couple degrees. So I pitched the yeast at 76-78F. I would of preferred 70-72F as that is the temperature of my bathroom. The fermometer now stays 74F. I don't like the guessing aspect of a partial boil's final temperature, which makes me consider doing full extract boils.

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

To make sure I get my temps down quick I always put a gallon of water in the fridge when my brewday starts. Then I use this as the last gallon of top up water and it gets temps down well. It may cool it lower than I'd like but its better to be too cool than too hot IMO.

 

[Jaybrew226]

This was a recipe kit for a Portland Style Hefeweizen. I have two questions... after the aggressive fermentation subsides would you leave the blow off tube like I have it or move back to a standard air lock?

Second, since this is a Hefeweizen and its suppose to be cloudy I don't see much use for a secondary carboy. Should I leave it in the primary for 2 weeks then bottle? Any advice?

 

[Sulli]

I like to pull the blow-off tube, just for the sake of cleanliness.
2 weeks in primary and straight to bottles sounds about right to me.