Timing of the Starter

[Emian]

I seem to have repeated difficulty of timing my brew to coincide with when my starter is kreusening.

Does anyone make their brew at the same time as the starter, and leave the finished wort sealed up and waiting for the starter to be ready? I was thinking of doing it that way - but as the wort could be sitting for up to 20 hours, with an air-space above it - does this create a propensity for contamination?

Any thoughts?

Ian

 

[JRGSPE73]

I personally would be a bit weary of leaving my wort idle for such a long period of time. Wort is the perfect environment for all kinds of nasties to thrive, so ideally you want to pitch the yeast and get your fermenter sealed off as soon as possible. It might work, but I think I would rather add yeast that's not quite at it's peak than leave the wort susceptible to contamination. As long as you're seeing activity in your starter, your yeast should be viable...fermentation may take a little longer, especially if you're brewing a high OG brew, but I still think thats better than risking contamination.

I'm a bit of a noob at brewing, so if anyone more experienced thinks I'm way off here, feel free to correct me.

-Josh

 

[Mindflux]

Kreusen smhmeusen.

I let mine ferment until it stops, toss it in the fridge till I need it.

I then decant off as much a liquid as i possibly can, swirl the crap out of the yeast cake and dump it in my fermenter cold.

There's a great number of resources on cold pitching.. check 'em out.

 

[magno]

This site has some details about Wyeast and White Labs

http://www.homebrew.com/how_to/advanced_brewing.shtml


-magno

 

[cweston]

I start the starter at least 24 hours before I plan to brew. If the starter reaches high kreusen early, I let it go past high kreusen and then put it in the fridge.

This has the added benefit of making it easier to decant or siphon the fermented wort off the yeast slurry, if you choose to, since refridgerating hastens the seperating process.

 

[budbo]

I usually start it on Thursday afternoon (for a saturday brew day) after the Wort is ready Just Shake the crap out of it and dump it in. Always works for me

 

[david_42]

To answer the second question, I would never let my wort sit for 20 hours or even 2. Dumping a starter in "early" just gives the yeast more room to grow.