My very own 'Starter' Question - HOORAY!

[meatwad]

So I built a normal starter yesterday, for a brew day tomorrow.

Per How to Brew - I boiled a pint of water, and DME , for about ten minutes.
Cooled to 75, and pitched my WLP008, shook vigorously.

It was pretty mellow till a few hours ago..I can see many tiny bubbles, and my cling wrap is starting to billow. Since I don't have a stir plate, I walk over and swirl it from time to time.

My question however is THIS!

Can I pitch the whole darn thing tomorrow, or HOW do I know it's ready to pitch? I've read that I can pitch the whole thing, or put it in the fridge overnight, pour off the bad beer, and pitch the slurry. I don't really want to put it in the fridge if its still building up the yeast.

Thoughts?

And thanks!

 

[BBL_Brewer]

If you are brewing tomorrow, I would pitch the whole thing.

 

[DHaught]

Is this for a five gallon batch? If so you could definitely pitch the whole thing and probably get great results. I know some people will pitch whole liter or 2 liter starters into a 5 gallon batch.

If you want to decant it first you could but youd be dumping off some active yeast for no good reason. I'd just swirl it around and dump it in and call it good. Next time do a bigger starter a few days earlier and let it ferment out and settle on it's own. Then pour off the beer and add a liter of wort back to it the morning of the brew day to get them really going before you dump in the starter.

 

[Dan]

Decant or not - personal preference. I'd pitch the whole thing. But don't suffocate the yeast in a container with an airtight seal. They need some oxygen, use sanitized tin foil to keep the bad stuff out but let some O2 in.

 

[meatwad]

Just a quick update. I pitched the whole thing, it had grown quite a bit. The yeast started chuggin almost instantly after hitting the wort. Probably 1 hour into it. My last beer took 70 hours before I saw my first click.

Just one of the legions of people to proclaim for the first time:

I will NEVER go without a starter again.

Thanks HBT!

 

[enohcs]

Here's my starter currently on the plate. Next stop...760 billion cells.

 

[DHaught]

Nice. That's massive.