yeast starter. short on dme. use priming sugar??

[bcryan]

i'm making a yeast starter right now and i realized i'm 150 grams short on my dme. is it ok if i use priming sugar to make up for the other 150 grams i'm short? thanks

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

i'm sure it's 'ok'. people make starters with dextrose all the time, but i wouldn't do it. i'm sure someone will come along and say that this is wrong, but as i understand it you want to grow your yeast by feeding them maltose like they'll find in wort, not simple sugars. there's a lot of information on this topic on these forums, a simple search should give you enough information to make the choice.

 

[bcryan]

thanks for quick reply. i think i'm gonna just make the 3 liter starter with just 150 grams of dme. after a quick search priming sugar seems not to be recommended. a starter short on dme, i'm hoping, is better than just adding liquid yeast from smack pack directly to the wort.

 

[BradleyBrew]

if you have grain you could just mash 1lb and use that as your starter wort.

 

[jaycount]

Or go buy Malta Goya from the ethnic foods aisle

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Bcryan, you want to grow your yeast with the type of sugars it is going to eat in the fermenter. Yeast equipment themselves with certain enzymes and tougher skins depending on what they are eating. Maltose is an easy sugar for the yeast to digest, so they will be stressed out if they are introduce to a complicated sugar environment. Its like wearing shorts and flip flops thinking you are going to the beach, then you are thrown in a cold environment, you are not prepared and you are going to suffer. Same thing applies with yeast.

Are you an extract brewer? If not you could just mash in some 2-row and boil that up, that will give you a lot of starter wort for your yeast to replicate in. If not you could just go with your original plan, that isn't that much DME you are missing. Or just make it with the amount of DME you have on hand. Up to you.

 

[JTylerSingletary]

Or go buy Malta Goya from the ethnic foods aisle

Have you used this as a starter before? Goya is apparently lightly hopped and has citric acid added; Does this affect the yeast growth in the starter? I would think it would probably work best for dark ales?

 

[suprchunk]

Have you used this as a starter before? Goya is apparently lightly hopped and has citric acid added; Does this affect the yeast growth in the starter? I would think it would probably work best for dark ales?

I haven't used it myself, but have heard of it being used quite frequently. And I believe it has phosphoric acid. I have never seen mention of citric acid. It also has salt, and two corn syrups. Plus caramel coloring.

 

[bja]

People think that the very second yeast comes in contact with sugar, it'll never again eat maltose. This isn't true. If they were fed 100% sugar several times I'm sure something could happen to reduce their ability to eat maltose, but a small percentage of sugar isn't going to cause them to mutate overnight.

 

[psubrewer]

+1 for Malta Goya.

Pasturized wort basically.1.060 gravity so adjust accordingly. If you cold crash and decant, color should be a non factor in 5 gallons of wort.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I would use whatever DME you have on hand and make up the missing gravity with table sugar. Using DME helps two ways. It supplies a variety of nutrients that pure sugar lacks. You can get around this by using a small amount of boiled flour.Second, your yeast will produce the same enzymes to eat the DME that they'll need in wort. If the yeast don't produce the enzymes in the starter, they will produce them in the wort as needed. You'll just have a longer lag time.

An-all DME starter is your best choice, but hardly your only one.