Reusing yeast - what to do now?

I just racked my American Red ale into a secondary so I could try my hand at culturing the yeast (Wyeast 1056). Fermentation in my flask started after less than an hour, and now I have a nice frothy head on top.

I wasn't expecting any action for another 12 hours... so what do I do now? How long should I wait before pitching? If I need to wait longer can I put the yeast in the fridge and pull it out when I'm ready to brew?

Thanks!

I prefer to pitch starters at high krausen. You can put it in the fridge for a few days and then brew with it. Or put it in fridge for a while, then make a new starter before brewing with it.

Thanks for the reply! It's definitely still chugging away. How can I tell when it hits high krausen?

Thanks for the help!

How big is the starter? If it is less than 1.5 liters per 5 gallons I would pitch the entire starter. For this, you need to keep the starter going for about a day (assuming you had a reasonable amount of yeast to start with), but an extra 2 - 3 days wouldn't hurt. If the starter is bigger, I would leave it for 4 - 5 days, and then put it in the fridge to precipitate the yeast. Then, after a day or two, you can pour off the clear wort, and pitch the yeast slurry.

-a.

The starter is about 400 ml right now. I wasn't very exact in making this starter... I boiled 1/3 cup LME with 1 cup water, let it cool and then added some of the slurry from the bottom of my primary.

Why the need for such a large starter? I've direct pitched from Activator packs and those are only a few ml.

Thanks!

I did my first starter a couple of days ago and I THOUGHT I screwed it up. I boiled up 1250ml of water and 1 cup DME. The yeast came from a Wyeast Activator pack, came in a kit my bro-in-law bought for an English Bitter. He didn't know how to handle the yeast when the kit arrive so didn't put it in the fridge for a few days. I wanted to do a starter to prove its viability and also experiment with it.

Long story short, I used the starter after only 24 hours, before krausen even formed, but bubbles were starting so I assumed the propagation cycle was over. We pitched it (the entire thing after swirling it around) yesterday around 5:30 and 16 hours later I already had 2" of krausen. Right now the krausen is about ready to start heading out the blowoff tube.

I guess starters are pretty forgiving... so maybe don't worry too much.

MurderMittenBrewing said:

Why the need for such a large starter? I've direct pitched from Activator packs and those are only a few ml.
Thanks!

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From what I've gathered from here and talking to friends who have worked in the brewing industry, a homebrewer's starter can do a couple critical things. First, maybe you do a full boil and don't have good aeration (or you don't have good aeration for other reasons), it won't matter too much because you'll still have enough yeast cells to ferment without the need for further propagation in an oxygenated environment. You reduce the chances of under pitching.

Second, a starter will shrink the lag time and help ward off possible contamination, in theory. The yeast just storm in and push other organisms out.

Also, big beers need a big starter.

I usually make 1 liter starters for normal gravity ales, and starting with an activator pack, White Labs vial, or home washed yeast. I pitch these about 18 hours after making the starter, leaving in on a stir plate for the full 18 hours. If I use a propagator pack and I remember, I make a 2 liter starter (as per the directions), ferment for about 4 days, chill for 2 or 3, decant, and pitch the slurry. If I forget, I make a 1 liter starter and leave it on the stir plate for 48 hours. On my one and only lager, I made a 1 liter starter that I stepped up over several days to about 3 liters.
None of these has resulted in over pitching, and fermentation usually starts in about 4 - 6 hours.

-a.

Thanks for the advice! Does washing the yeast make a big difference, or should I be ok just repitching my existing starter when the time comes?

I wash because I often store my yeast for a considerable time (often several months).
If I was going to do a new brew within a couple weeks of the previous one, then I probably wouldn't bother.

-a.

Ok, so one last question... The yeast I cultured came from an American style red ale. I'm thinking about brewing a blonde ale for my next brew, which will be both lighter in color and OG than the red (although only by a little bit). Will I be ok using the yeast from the red ale for the blonde?

I wouldn't worry about picking up off flavors from the first brew, but I might worry about whether or not the yeast is the right style for a blonde ale. I really don't know because I've never brewed either of those styles.

-a.