Yeast starter tips

I was thinking about buying/making a stir plate
for my yeast starters. Is this a worthwhile investment? I have had some off flavors in my
beers and want to rule out yeast issues.

Have you seem a noticeable improvement in beers made with a starter and stir plate?

Thanks in advance.

 

It has made such a difference that getting my starters going on time is the most important planning I do for my brewing. I will make the starter on Wednesday, go Saturday morning to get grains and mash in when I get home. If my starter's not ready, I don't brew!

 

I agree with mcarthur. And I recommend a stir plate vs. periodic shaking. It does make a noticeable difference. Just check the yeast calculators.

 

It has had a tremendous impact on the quality of my beer. Controlling your fermentation temps and pitching large healthy yeast populations is the not so secret way to make great and consistent beer.

 

Thanks for the replies. Do you guys just use liquid yeast now then? I there a comparison in quality between liquid yeast starters and regular dried yeast without a starter?

 

The word 'large' seems often over used when it comes to yeast starters.

Perhaps a better term is "appropriately sized".

It is easy to under and over pitch yeast even on a homebrew scale.

The effects of which may not be as noticeable depending on the degree to which the under or over pitching is done and the execution of the rest of the process, but it is still beneficial to use a calculator to determine how big your starter should be or how many step-ups you require.

As an example, making a 4L starter for every beer would really kill some beers, but may be beneficial for others. Just as not making a starter would work for some beers and wouldn't be so great for others.

 

I am all for making starters for liquid yeast. In addition there are many people that only use dry yeast and make amazing beer as well. There is no definitive answer.

As for your off flavors though there are other variables in play more than the yeast, particularly sanitizing and fermentation temperatures.

Perhaps you should evaluate your off flavors and describe them, while possible, IME starter will effect attenuation and things like acetaldehyde flavors more than some of the others.

If you tell us what you are experiencing we can help diagnose but by all means if you use liquid yeast make a starter to the appropriate size!

 

I would hope most people would have the common sense not to pitch a 4L starter on a stir plate for the majority of their beers. There are plenty of yeast starter calculators out there that will give you a solid estimated appropriate starter size.

 

It goes past making good beer. It gives you the ability to not buy yeast any more, you can freeze it or just put it in the fridge. You will have one 2000ml jar on the plate and another in the fridge doing the 12hr swap, bumping up starters before you know it.

 

I want to make a yeast starter for a brown ale using British ale yeast of some kind. 10 g batch with 10.5 give or take in the fermenter at roughly 70F. Using a stir plate. Brewing on Friday.

How much DME would you suggest or how much plain white sugar(if it can be used)?

 

1 g of light DME to 10 ml of water. For a 1 L starter you would use 100 g of light DME. Best to check with a yeast calculator (Mr. Malty) to see what volume you're looking at.

 

I do 1.5L 18 hour stirplate starter for any liquid yeast and beer/mead. If the original gravity is over 1.080 I'll grow up and decant the starter 2x. Never have growth issues or off flavors... well yet, anything can happen!

 

For average original gravity a 2L starter would be best. A little over 2L for boil off with 200g of DME. Take a look at the calculator on mrmalty.com, it will help with the details of your exact numbers.