1st starter

[Bigbens6]

Making my first starter tomrrow night with a whitelab ale yeast. Questions for clarification, for an ipa predicted at 1.055sg how big a starter do i need, 1 liter, 2?

Second, WHAT do you make your starter in? Tupperware? 2L bottle? Anything convenient? I am pretty excitied and want ot get my starter going tomorrow night around 6 or 7ish, so i can pitch it tuesday between 10-noon.

If you dont think it is a bad idea i'm gonna save a touch of ym starter and make another starter and save 4 or 5 samples for future use as well!

 

[double_e5]

Use this calculator for pitching rates:
Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

I wouldn't make a starter with tupperware, for fear of scratches in the plastic. A 2L bottle would work, but a growler or something like that would be better.

Also, I wouldn't save anything from the starter. I would do this after I racked the beer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

 

[jescholler]

I had the same problem trying to figure out what to make a starter in. My first thought was a growler. The problem with that is the largest ones I could find were 64oz and ran about $7 plus shipping. I decided on a 1 gallon pickle jar. Three great things came of it:

1. I was eating pickles regularly for about 2 weeks.
2. It's very easy to pour your wort and yeast into it.
3. It has plenty of room to swirl the starter (I used a 1.25L starter).

I did have to make sure that there was no pickle aroma left. That would make for some interesting beer.

I've also heard that it's better to slightly under pitch than to over pitch. The sizes of the starters that the Mr. Malty calculator recommend seem quite large, so I scaled it back a bit. For example, the calculator told me I needed 2 liters, so I ended up using 1.25. My fermentation was still rocking after 9 hours (maybe sooner, but I was sleeping) and at its peak was bubbling about 120 times a minute.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Catt22]

and read this info about starters:

Fourteen Essential Questions About Yeast Starters

I think you will find just about all you need to know about starters there.

 

[Bigbens6]

My biggest concern is WHAT to make it in, I'm not sure I have a suitable vessel right now, gonna have to look around I guess, but one way or another I gotta get it going tonight!

 

[Catt22]

Almost any glass container will work. A 1/2 gallon glass jug works well. Sometimes you can find these at the supermarkets or health food stores filled with apple juice or something similar. Just transfer the juice to some other container and use the jug for your starter.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

and read this info about starters:

Fourteen Essential Questions About Yeast Starters

I think you will find just about all you need to know about starters there.

That's a great link! Thanks for posting it!

 

[carl spakler]

Are there any brewpubs that sell growlers to go? That is where I got my starter vessel, grand total cost was ~$5 and included 64 ounces of beer.

 

[Bigbens6]

Well i did a ~1 liter starter with whitelabs claifornial ale yeast, liquid OFC. I used 5 cups water (trying to account for boil off) and 1 cup light DME, boiled, cooled to room temp while the yeast warmed from fridge temps. Pitched it all in a 1 gallon milk jug that u cleaned, rinsed (about 5 times haha) and sanitized.

I made it about 8pm the day before, shoot it at 9pm, 1:30pm, 3am (had to pee) and then once i woke up to begin brewing i shoot it every 15-30 min. I would close the cap, shake it, open the gap to off gas, then do it again until there was not more pressure build up, typically 3 cycles. This was also my first partial mash so that was going on as well, pretty exciting brew day all in all!!

I pitched it about 11:00AM

At 5 that evening i was bubbling into my blow off about 1 every second

By 10 last night it was double!

This has be the best and most vigorous fermentation I have ever had, and the shortest lag time, and i am sold on starters from here on out! Thanks for the replies, i found out for 60 bucks i can get a stir plate and a boilable 2L erlenmeyer flask so when i get ready to brew next thats the plan, and i should have even better results... screw dry yeast hahaha