help me with my starter

[deremer]

I would like to try making a starter. Could some one please help me with a time line and guide to use in order to have every thing in place for brewing Friday after work. The yeast I have is White Labs WLP001, a 1000ml flask, foam stopper, stir plate, and DME.

Thanks
Ben

 

[ryandlf]

I would get the starter going late Thursday night or even Friday morning. You don't want it to ferment for too long, you just want it to be kicked into high gear when your ready to pitch it.

I personally use 4 ounces of DME and 1000 ml of wort boiled for 15 minutes, then cooled and pitched. I don't use a stir plate but its an excellent tool.

 

[deremer]

is that 4 oz by weight or volume, i have a 1 lb bag of dme but no scale to measure by weight. So should I just estimate 1/4 of the bag.

 

[erikpete18]

Back before I had a scale I'd do a cup of dme/quart of water. That should get you in the neighborhood of 1.04. The gravity just needs to be between 1.03 and 1.05, so you've got some leeway to estimate.

Were you planning on pitching the whole starter, or decanting? It seems like there's two theories to this. The first is to do what ryandlf said, make your starter 8-10 hours before you brew so that the yeast is at full krausen and pitch the whole starter.

I never liked the idea of pitching the starter wort, especially on bigger starters, so I do the second way which is to grow up the starter overnight until it ferments completely, then toss it in the fridge for a second night. The yeast should compact to the bottom (might need two nights for a non-flocculant yeast), then you can pour most of the starter beer off the yeast and use a little remaining to swirl everything into solution. So long as you let the yeast warm back up to room temp before pitching, you'll be good to go.

 

[ryandlf]

Personally, I just estimate a quarter bag as well. Works for me.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Just target the 1040 gravity and you'll be fine.

This is a good tool to help decide how big you need to be on your starter: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

The starter is really designed to grow your yeast count to the appropriate numbers to properly ferment your beer. You CAN but don't NEED to pitch the entire contents of your starter. I usually run my starter for 24 hours and cold crash to decant off the unwanted liquid. By doing this, I've gotten (close) to the requisite cell count for my beer. I'll get my yeast active again the morning of the brew by making a VERY small starter (talking a few ounces) just to rouse them and get them active. I'll pitch that into my beer when I'm at pitching temps and done with aeration. I usually have activity in less than 8 hours.

**EDIT**

You don't need a stopper (in fact it isn't recommended) for your starter, you only need sanitized foil loosely placed over the top of the flask. O2 exchange is okay here since you're growing yeast, not making beer...

 

[deremer]

thanks for the instructions, i have a foam stopper i was going to use

 

[eastoak]

i would brew the beer cool it down then make the starter and pitch it at high krausen later that evening or the next day.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Actually just got done showing my FIL how to make his first starter!!! A couple of things...

Your foam stopper is perfect, just sanitize it. Lacking that, a sanitized foil cap going about 3" down the side of the flask is fine.

Smack your pack and let it swell

It is not important that it swell all the way ahead of time but the little bubble is really good yeast nutrients, so break it open. It also helps rinse the yeast out of the package.

Rule of thumb is 1g DME for every 10ml of starter. So a 1000ml starter will use 100g of DME. However, you will not be able to make a 1000ml starter in a 1000ml flask! I went with the smaller flask and got frustrated by the yeasty overflows so I broke down and ordered a 2000ml flask from ebay. I was using Wyeast 1056 which is the same strain as WLP 001, and I got a lot of krausen and growth resulting in overflowing starters and a messy stirplate...I now always put a towel over my stirplate and set the flask on that.

You will probably not want to make bigger than a 600-700ml starter. Add 70g of DME to the flask and fill to the 900ml mark (allowing for some boil off). Swirl it up to dissolve the DME and then pour into a pot to boil. I tried boiling in the flask right off... huge boil over and huge mess. So I tried boiling in a pot until I get the hot break and foaming over with, then pour into my flask and boil long enough to sanitize the flask...still a huge pain in the ass. Somehow no book or thread or article on making a starter in a Pyrex flask ever mentions this! Maybe some fermcap or other anti-foam would help. Now I just boil the DME, water, and 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient in a pot, chill to pitching temps in the sink, then pour into a sanitized flask through a sanitized funnel and top with a piece of sanitized foil.

Sanitize the outside of the Smack pack as well as the scissors to open it and carefully pour the yeast into the flask. Toss your sanitized stir bar into the wort, set on the stir plate, and let it go (noticing a sanitized theme here!!!).

Yeast will reach maximum growth in about 24 hrs but let it sit for another 8-12 to allow the yeast to build their glycogen reserves. Then stick the flask in the fridge to crash cool the yeast out of suspension. On the morning of brew day I pull the yeast out to warm to pitching temps. You can either decant the starter beer off the top leaving just enough to resuspend the slurry and pitch directly into the waiting batch of wort or make a mini starter in the morning just to wake the yeastie beasties up and get 'em chompin' on some fresh wort!!! Then just pitch the whole thing into your batch.

The main argument against pitching the entire starter is that starter beer is pretty crappy and can contribute funky off flavors to your brew. On a small scale this is not such a big deal but larger starters can have a noticeable effect.

Hope this helps...welcome to your new obsession

 

[BrewThruYou]

http://billybrew.com/how-to-make-a-yeast-starter