Starter question

[mjcoss]

I'm planning on brewing an imperial stout this weekend, and figured I'd do a starter. I'm using a kit from Northerbrewer, using the White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale yeast. The kit using some specialty grains & extracts - English black malt, chocolate malt, and barley with Dark malt extract. So here's the question

Does it make any difference if the starter is made with light or amber dry malt extract (which I have on hand)? Or should it be made using a dark malt extract to more closely match the wort? I don't have any dark malt extract but there's a shop not too far away.

Also speaking of starters, what is the "proper" ratio of dry malt extract to water for a good starter? Is it a function of the beer being brewed or just a set amount to get the yeast colony going? Should you add any yeast nutrients/energizers to the starter?

Thanks.

 

[KeninMN]

I use golden light DME in my starters. That way there is no chance the starter wort will contribute measurably to the intended beer's flavor. I usually don't have time to chill it, drop the yeast out of suspension and decant off the starter beer before I pitch my yeast, so it all goes into the fermentor. I haven't had a bad batch yet using this method, so knock on wood. Here is a good link that answers the question as well:

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1612-when-creating-a-yeast-starter-for-pitching-is-it-favorable-to-use-the-particular-type-of-dried-malt-extract-that%E2%80%99s-used-in-the-recipe

 

[pennyloaf]

I think it is more important to chill and pour off the liquid as opposed to what the liquid is made from.

At least for me, my last (first) starter started off warm.. maybe in the 80s.. I am sure it had lots of biproducts in it. I split it in half to keep and to pitch on a regular stout.

 

[kh54s10]

Get a digital scale and weigh out you DME. Use 100 grams for a one liter starter, 150 grams for 1.5 L, etc.
This gives about 1.038-1.040 starter wort

Use your amber DME if you have nothing else, cold crash and decant the liquid. I use light DME's.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[khawk95]

I've used light and amber just because that's what I had lying around. Just chill and decant prior to pitching so you don't have off flavors.


Roed Haus Brewery

 

[mjcoss]

Thanks for the replies. Ran the calculator and looks like I'll probably need a big starter to get the cell count I need. In previous starter's I've always used Light DME, but figured I'd see what others did. Given that I wasn't decanting off the liquid, I thought that maybe it would make sense to match the starter to the wort. Thanks again for the advice.