too much dme in starter?

[sampson0420]

I had a couple minutes yesterday to make a yeast starter for my pops. I started with 2500ml of water and 200g of dme for my boil. I boiled for 20 minutes or so. After cooling, I realized that I had only about 1.5 liter's of wort or 1500ml. I was out of time and didn't have my hydrometer with me, so I pitched.

My question is, did I screw myself by pitching? Should I have boiled some water and added it? Would adding distilled water have helped the situation? I know without my hydrometer it's hard to tell how much I messed up. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm just concerned my OG was too high and might have hurt my yeast!

 

[schoolmaster]

While that is a little more DME than I use for my starters you should be ok. Adding more boiled water would probably have been you best option, but the starter you made should be fine.

High gravity is only a problem for yeast when they are completing fermentation. It is the higher alcohol levels that are produced that make it difficult for the yeast to finish fermenting the beer. If the yeast is not healthy, then you may have problems fully fermenting a high gravity beer.

A starter is just going to get the yeast to increase in population during their reproduction phase. Given that a starter is only going to be going for a few day before you pitch it into you wort you won't produce high levels of alcohol (or much alcohol for that matter) that become problems in high gravity beers.

You should be fine.

 

[stevo155]

I make my starters using the 100:1 ratio for DME. 100ml per 1gram of DME. I also don't boil my starters that long...usually 5-10 minutes and no problems yet.

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

You lost a liter of volume in 20 mins ?!! That cant be right?

 

[sampson0420]

I did lose a liter or close to it, which was crazy in my mind too! I think it's because I was using a large pot, which made for more surface area, and in turn more evaporation. I know I had over 2 liters of water though at the start and only meant to boil for 15 minutes, instead of the 20-25 it went.

Regardless, it sounds like I should be ok, thanks for the quick responses guys!

 

[bja]

You only need to sanitize the wort for a starter, so 5 minutes boiling is enough.