how long for a starter?

so I am making my first starter, and its been about 8 hours for a 1.055 og wort. I was wondering when it would be ok to pitch it? I made a starter because it was a liquid yeast.

 

So is your beer 1.055? Or is that the gravity of your starter?

Have you brewed already and are now "waiting" for your starter to be ready?

Typically, as I have recently learned, you get your starter going 1-2 days prior to actual pitching. Then either chill, decant, and pitch, or just swirl and pitch, depending on preference. I'm still new to it myself as I have typically used dry yeast up until now.

 

More details are needed. Are you using a stirplate? What is the size of the starter? How old is the yeast package you made the starter from? All these are considerations on how long the starter needs.

With a stirplate and fairly fresh yeast I do about 18 hours with a small starter and pitch the whole thing.

With a larger starter I let it go for 24 hours and chill for 24 or more then decant the liquid.

With intermittent shaking (which I don't do) I would go for 24 - 36 hours.

I also make step starters from 10ml frozen yeast vials. This takes about a week to accomplish.

 

I agree with DJ, make the starter ahead of time, let it ferment out completely, then cold crash and decant off the spent 'beer' so you only pitch the yeast slurry. FWIW, a good OG for most starters is ~1.04 (1 gm of DME for every 10 ml wort will get you about there).

 

So the starter was 1.040, the writer has been boiled and is at



That is the wort, but I started the starter at 9 this morning, it is about 11 hours later, I have shaken it every 30 min, vigorously. I can tell it's started because of the foam and the small bubbles in the solution.

 

So you can pitch it once it gets really active like it is, just pitch the whole active starter. I personally prefer to let the starter finish and then toss the starter beer, that way it doesn't go into the wort. The impact is minimal, and either way works just fine, I just prefer the latter.

 

I pitch my starters at 12-18 hours ... Mr. Malty has some great info on making/pitching starters ... http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

 

Don't let this be overly complicated:

1. For most beers, a one liter starter is good (1/2 cup DME in 650 mls), and you can pitch the whole thing.

2. Make your starter the day before.

This will work just fine for any standard gravity or lower Ale.

For higher gravity beers (1.065ish plus?) I would do the math, have a bigger starter, and decant.

At least this works for me......
Pez.

 

Even without a starter your beer would be ok unless its a higher gravity. Pitch it as soon as the wort is cool enough.

Although I personally do mskey starter a few days in advance and decant to avoid any off flavors that may be in the starter beer

 

I used the mrmalty calc for my last one. Did a 1/2 gallon starter 3 days before. Brew day I put it in the fridge to crash about 10 hours, used a turkey baster to take about 80% of the liquid off and let it sit for 4 hours to bring it to room temp. Swirled to get it all back into suspension and pitched.

Oh, forget to mention that volume of starter was for a beer that had a 1.092 O.G.

 

Thanks for your input guys, I waited till this morning and just pitched the whole starter, on my way out the door for work, and when I got home... man was it active