Liquid Yeast....no starter!

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Lunarpancake

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Ok i forgot to create my starter, can i continue with brew-day (today) and just pitch the liquid yeast? or should I put-off brew day till next week :(




Help! Quick Response needed!
 
What kind of beer are you aiming for? OG? I've done beers up to 1.060 without a starter and had no issues. Starters aren't absolutely neccessary, they just make things easier. If you're doing a beer over 1.060 though, I'd suggest putting off brewing until next week. Or buy another pack of yeast.
 
Or get a starter going ASAP and let it ferment for 18-24 hours, then pitch tomorrow. You can leave wort sitting overnight as long as your sanitation is good.
 
Or get a starter going ASAP and let it ferment for 18-24 hours, then pitch tomorrow. You can leave wort sitting overnight as long as your sanitation is good.

+1 to that. If you make a starter immediately before brewing, it should be ready to pitch the following day - letting wort sit a few hours won't hurt anything.

Pitching an active starter greatly reduces lag time, so making a starter this way vs. underpitching a single pack of yeast right into your wort.... fermentation will take off at roughly the same time either way, you'll just have a healthier yeast population and fermentation with the starter.
 
What kind of beer are you aiming for? OG? I've done beers up to 1.060 without a starter and had no issues. Starters aren't absolutely neccessary, they just make things easier. If you're doing a beer over 1.060 though, I'd suggest putting off brewing until next week. Or buy another pack of yeast.

The OG should be about 1.050
 
If you're looking at 1.050 OG I say just go ahead and pitch it. A lot of people don't make starters with smaller beers so it certainly isn't the end of the world.
 
If you're looking at 1.050 OG I say just go ahead and pitch it. A lot of people don't make starters with smaller beers so it certainly isn't the end of the world.

Directly from How to Brew:

-For OGs less than 1.055, you need 60-120 billion yeast cells. A starter isn't necessary
-A single packet of dry yeast has 50-70 billion cells
-Liquid yeast tubes have about 100 billion cells

That being said, a starter won't hurt, but it really isn't needed. You are good to go.
 
Moto....im still on mini mashes, no full grains here yet.


Thanks everyone ...ill just pitch the little suckers and update you on how it goes in a few days.!



THANKS!
 
While a starter would be good, it's not absolutely neccesary with an OG of 1.050. I'd just pitch it as is. The Mr Malty pitching rate calculator is great, but it definately figures things far on the safe side.

Directly from How to Brew:

-For OGs less than 1.055, you need 60-120 billion yeast cells. A starter isn't necessary
-A single packet of dry yeast has 50-70 billion cells
-Liquid yeast tubes have about 100 billion cells

That being said, a starter won't hurt, but it really isn't needed. You are good to go.

That may be a typo or from an outdated version of the book. The commonly available size of dry yeast packets (11.5g) actually have ~200 billion cells.
 
If you go to the Danstar site and look at the tech PDF for nottingham yest you'll see they say 5 billion cells per gram. 11.5 grams times 5 billion yields 57.5 billion cells. Similarly Fermentis Safale states 6 billion cells per gram.
 
Okay, I'm in this same boat, and not sure what I should do.

I'm planning on brewing tomorrow, and my yeast is still in the fridge. I don't really feel like being up until midnight messing with a yeast starter. Debating if I should put mine off until Tuesday, but tomorrow I've got a buddy coming by who can help out. If I wait until Tuesday, I may or may not (most likely not) have the assistance of my roommate who has thusfar flaked on me 4/5 times.

I'm doing a Pale Ale that the my software says will be 1.062 og. Knowing my previous luck, it will probably turn out 1.058. I've got a whitelabs vial, and it sounds like I should be good, since they say they put plenty of yeast in there. Alternately, I just do an 6-hour starter.

Should I just pitch it, or take the time to make a starter?
 
i've done two batches as well with liquid yeast and no starters; OGs of 1.045 and 1.066. Both fermented fine, IMO. The 1.066 didn't quite get to where I would like it (1.016 instead of 1.012) but it's good so far!
 
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