First yeast starter

[ryoko]

Hi all, I washed some yeast according to the sticky in the yeast section. This was 3 weeks ago. Yesterday I boiled up a few table spoons of dme and added it to a 1 gallon glass jug I bought at my local brew store. While the dme solution was cooling I also let the yeast come to room temp before adding it.

So it has been about 24 hours now, and I hope to brew tomorrow. How do I know things are working? I see a little airlock activity everytime I swirl the liquid, then it settles down. I try to swirl it every time I walk by it. Any way to know if it is ready for pitching? This is a lager yeast , but I have kept it at room temp. In the future should I bring it to the cooler basement where I ferment?


Thanks for helping the new guy

 

[tooldudetool]

Ideally you should be basing your yeast starter size on a calculation based on your expected original gravity and batch size, using an online calculator like this: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
That will let you know the size of your starter. Then you should figure out the amount by weight of DME you will need. It should be a 10 to 1 ratio, for example a 1 liter starter needs 100 grams of DME. You should add the DME first, then add water until it comes up to the correct 1 liter volume. Read this FAQ for more specifics: http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.php. Chances are if you only added a couple tablespoons of DME there really isn't a lot of food for the yeast, and they really won't multiply to the levels you need. The entire purpose of a starter is to increase the pitching rate by growing yeast, and for that they need lots of food, as in a gravity between 1.030 and 1.040. Lager yeasts require even larger starters than ale yeasts. Since you are using washed yeast, you probably started with a bigger pitch than just a vial or smack pack, so that will help. You can expect your starter to be at maximum cell density in 18 hours or so.

 

[ryoko]

Thanks for the links and advice.brew day went well and I have activity already in the air lock.