Yeast Temp with Stir Plate

[Rockweezy]

Do I need to worry about the temperature of my yeast starter when I am using a stir plate? My room temp. is somewhere between 75-85.

 

[GNBrews]

Watch the temp with a thermometer strip on the side of the flask. One of my first stir plates, a Thermolyne, used resistor elements to control the speed of the induction motor that ran the stir function. The result was the resistors heated the chassis just enough to make my starter a bit hotter than I like. To solve that problem, I rolled a small tube from a few turns of receipt paper, and cut slices off to make (3) short little standoffs that I could put under the flask in a triangular pattern to keep the flask from heating through conduction. It worked well, but I ended-up taking the thing apart and replacing the variable speed circuit with an external fan speed control module.

I like my starters to be no more than 82F.

 

[Lefty]

I like warmer temps with my starters. The yeast will take off like crazy. Worried about off flavors in the starter...don't. Cold crash it and decant off the nasty beer and pitch only the yeast slurry. Only will a very low gravity pale ale will have any off flavors from a high temp starter. Most any other style will cover the off flavor starter. To be safe, decant off most of the liquid...no worries.

 

[passedpawn]

+1 on the decant. It will smell pretty cruddy at elevated temps. Chill @ 32 for 24-48 hrs until the yeast completely settles, then pour off bad beer.

 

[Pivzavod]

Can someone please explain why you are dumping the liquid from the starter. I have always just mixed the yeast with the wort in the starter and added it to the primary.

 

[Wellshooter]

Can someone please explain why you are dumping the liquid from the starter. I have always just mixed the yeast with the wort in the starter and added it to the primary.

Probably doesn't make that big of a difference, I just decant the beer because all I want is the yeast. Seems 'cleaner' to me.

 

[passedpawn]

Can someone please explain why you are dumping the liquid from the starter. I have always just mixed the yeast with the wort in the starter and added it to the primary.

You can get away with doing that in a beer with a big flavor (i.e., a scotch ale or sweet stout).

However, you wouldn't want to do this with a german pilsner or helles or similar. The beer that was created in the starter will be very oxidized and phenolic due to the elevated temperatures. It's possible that that taste will be picked up in these smaller beers. I make a 4L starter (1 gallon); there is not way I am dumping 1gallon of skunk into my precious.

 

[Pivzavod]

You can get away with doing that in a beer with a big flavor (i.e., a scotch ale or sweet stout).

However, you wouldn't want to do this with a german pilsner or helles or similar. The beer that was created in the starter will be very oxidized and phenolic due to the elevated temperatures. It's possible that that taste will be picked up in these smaller beers. I make a 4L starter (1 gallon); there is not way I am dumping 1gallon of skunk into my precious.

I only do ales and they are typically Belgian, am I ok or should I start dumping the wort of the starter in the future? It's really not a big deal for me to dump the wort and add some boiled cooled water to it.

 

[passedpawn]

I only do ales and they are typically Belgian, am I ok or should I start dumping the wort of the starter in the future? It's really not a big deal for me to dump the wort and add some boiled cooled water to it.

Interestingly, the one beer that tolerates that starter wort the best is probably a belgian. I think the belgian yeasts create very nice, sweet, tasty starters!

I would still dump. If you chill really well, the yeast completely flocculates out (it will be a very well defined white powder under a fairly clear darker beer). I usually leave it at 32F for a couple of days, then when it is time to pitch, I just dump most the beer off it, swirly what is left to get the yeast in suspension, and pour into carboy). I prefer to leave a little beer in there after the decant to avoid having to introduce any new fluid (and avoid risk).

 

[Pivzavod]

Interestingly, the one beer that tolerates that starter wort the best is probably a belgian. I think the belgian yeasts create very nice, sweet, tasty starters!

I would still dump. If you chill really well, the yeast completely flocculates out (it will be a very well defined white powder under a fairly clear darker beer). I usually leave it at 32F for a couple of days, then when it is time to pitch, I just dump most the beer off it, swirly what is left to get the yeast in suspension, and pour into carboy). I prefer to leave a little beer in there after the decant to avoid having to introduce any new fluid (and avoid risk).

I actually did almost the same on my last batch on Saturday. I made a starter a week ago or so and grew some new yeasties in it. I put the starter in the fridge for a week and on the brew day I warmed it up to room temperature and added it to the wort. 12 hours later I had thick krausen and sweet odors of French Saison yeast.

 

[krops13]

+2 on decanting. I grow my yeasts from a culture on a stir plate. I get krausen forming an hour after pitching.

 

[passedpawn]

Isn't it nice that one of the beers that tolerates room temperature best are Belgian beers? Mmmm. I have 2 carboys full of belgian dubbel right now that are lagering.