Why is malt needed to make a starter?

I always use dme and water to make my starters, but i cant really figure out why i cannot use just sugar and water? Isnt sugar even easier for the yeast to feast on than mashwater(or whatever its called)? Some people say that its better to add candisugar to a bear during hi krauzen instead of in the boil since the yeast would eat the simple sugars first. Then why wouldnt it be better to just boil som sugar in water instead of that sticky dme stuff?

Mostly(as I understand it) its flavor. Plain sugar tastes like monkey ass when brewed. Yes it can be done, but the flavor isn't as good.

Actually, you don't want to use table sugar because you're preparing the yeast to be pitched and you want them to do that in an environment that is closest to beer as possible. You could use table sugar but I always assumed it could over feed the yeast, if that makes sense.

Hello said:

Actually, you don't want to use table sugar because you're preparing the yeast to be pitched and you want them to do that in an environment that is closest to beer as possible. You could use table sugar but I always assumed it could over feed the yeast, if that makes sense.

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aah, i didnt think of that. theres always talk about not shocking the yeast(too high gravity and temp changes) so thats probably why you dont want too feed it different kinds of sugars...

about the flavor, i always decant as much as i can from the starters, would flavor from the sugar still be an issue?

The idea behind a starter is to produce a healthy pitch of yeast cells for efficient wort fermentation. Stressed yeast do not make for healthy fermentation.

Although yeast can utilize Sucrose and other saccarides, it does best with Maltose and other saccarides in beer wort. Want healthy yeast? Feed it the stuff it likes to eat.

DME (or wort from barley/wheat/rye) contains much more than just malt sugar (maltose), such as nutrients, FAN, etc. which the yeast needs to propagate.

Regular table sugar is just sucrose.

broadbill said:

The idea behind a starter is to produce a healthy pitch of yeast cells for efficient wort fermentation. Stressed yeast do not make for healthy fermentation.

Although yeast can utilize Sucrose and other saccarides, it does best with Maltose and other saccarides in beer wort. Want healthy yeast? Feed it the stuff it likes to eat.

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Correct, it is better to grow the yeast using more complex sugars than simple sucrose.

IslandLizard said:

DME (or wort from barley/wheat/rye) contains much more than just malt sugar (maltose), such as nutrients, FAN, etc. which the yeast needs to propagate.

Regular table sugar is just sucrose.

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^ This right here. Wort is full of nutrients, whereas sugar has zero nutritional value. Imagine if your diet consisted solely of candy - sure, you could meet your calorie requirements and have plenty of carbohydrates for energy, but your health would suffer greatly.

I'm not sure, but maybe DME has nutrients that help the yeast reproduce?

I think most people that are of a somewhat scientific or analytical mindset ask themselves this question at some point. I know I did. Here's a link to an experiment that Braukaiser did that I found when I was pondering the same thing: http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2013/07/07/yeast-growth-on-malt-and-sugar/

Here's the conclusion, for anyone who doesn't want to follow the link or read through the experiment:

All malt wort provides vital nutrients for yeast growth. When these nutrients are diluted with sugar overall yeast growth suffers. The addition of additional nitrogen in the form of DAP (diammonium phosphate) can compensate for the reduced level of nutrients. But even with plenty of added DAP the best yeast growth was seen in all malt worts.

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