Yeast Starter Timing

[traviswalken]

I plan to brew a barleywine/pale ale partigyle in about a week. Brew date is a little difficult to nail down due to family stuff.

I have 1 stir plate and 2 flasks. I am pitching 2 yeast strains and stepping up the barleywine starter. I am planning to make the starters and do the step up over the next 5 days or so. As a result, the starters will probably sit for a 2 to 5 days in the fridge before I am ready to pitch. Is this a problem? Will I need to get the yeast going prior to pitching? Should I add about a liter of starter wort to the flasks about 12 hours before pitching?

Thanks.

 

[TheMadKing]

That plan sounds perfectly fine to me. The only thing you need to do before pitching is decant off the starter wort and let the yeast cakes naturally warm to room temp, then swirl and pitch.

Each starter only needs to be on the stir plate for about 18-24 hours before going into the fridge to cold crash too, any longer and you're not really gaining anything.

 

[kombat]

No problem at all. No need to "re-invigorate" them either. Cold-crash them, then decant and pitch when the wort is ready.

 

[traviswalken]

Thanks for the responses.