First yeast starter

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ryoko

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