Starters

Do most people crash and decant 2l starters before adding or just pour the whole thing in beer and all? Currently making a starter with wlp940 Lager yeast. Starter fermenting at 68-70F

Thanks

 

With that large of a starter I think I would want to decant and pitch just the slurry. There is no point to adding 2L of oxidized beer to your lager.

 

I've done both and can't say I've noticed a distinct difference in the beer (although I've got to think that much starter liquid definitely isn't going to do it any favors); if I have time I crash and decant.

Usually I've already got ~5.5gal in the fermenter and any more will greatly increase the chances of having to set up the blowoff tube, which is kind of a pain so I'll avoid it if possible.

 

I suspect most people decant their starters.

I do not--I pour the whole starter in. Now, that's a 1-liter starter, but I do that even with lagers.

With lagers, I'll get the wort temp to about 70 degrees, which is about what the starter is, and try to time it so that I'm pitching that starter at its high krausen. Typically for me that's about 15 hours after beginning the starter.

Then I'll let that sit at 70 for about another six hours or so, then start ramping it down to whatever lager fermentation temp I'm using, typically 50 degrees. In essence, I'm giving the yeast an opportunity to "double" the original 1-liter starter before I start to lower the temp.

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If you're using a standard wort gravity for the starter of about 1.036 or so, adding a liter of starter to wort with gravity of, say, 1.055 or so, you'll drop the overall gravity by about a point.

If you're doing a 2-liter starter, you have to consider how much dilution you want. Unless you're finely focused on hitting a specific number, it won't matter much, if at all.

Some will probably chime in that the starter wort doesn't taste that good and they don't want to put it into their beer, but I've never understood that idea myself. Yeast will clean up after itself, and no reason to think any remnants in the starter won't be cleaned up. Besides, how many people use the same DME in their beer, and the yeast have no trouble cleaning up after that.

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My starter routine is different than most (though there's about 4 of us here doing this in some form or another). I'll measure out 100g of DME, put in flask. Add a liter of RO water, a pinch or so of yeast nutrient, and a drop of Fermcap. I'll boil it for 5 minutes (be careful to mix the DME so it doesn't stick to the bottom and scorch). Then chill in an icewater bath until it's about 70 degrees.

Then I'll oxygenate the starter wort for 30 seconds using an oxygen wand, and then immediately pitch the yeast into it, put it on the stir plate, and....wait for the magic to happen.

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I do the same routine for ales as I do for lagers, though I'll be dropping temp to mid-to-lower 60s for fermentation.

I have friends wanting to buy my beer at commercial prices so I think all of this probably is OK to do.

 

Right, that's like trying to sample your fermenting wort 24 hours in.. of course its not going to taste "good" like a finished product.

 

Thank you for the replies