I am wanting to make a starter big enough to pitch (1 qt) with some left over in the fridge to use in a new starter later. Can I get the starter ready pitch yeast and divide into 2 containers (one to use and one to save) before it ferments without a problem. As you can tell this is my first time at this. Any help would be appreciated.
2 jars for yeast starter
- Thread starter gonpce
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JLeuck64
Well-Known Member
Yes you can! I do this all the time and the process is dirt simple ( ;
I make a 1.5L starter about 24-36 hours before brew day, the first time I use a pouch or vial of the yeast strain purchased from the supply shop. It took me a little head scratching to figure out how much water to start with but for me I found that starting with 1800ml of water and 150g of LDME works out very well. I boil it on the stove top for 20 min and the evaporation takes the volume down to 1500ml pretty consistently. Cool wort and pitch in your yeast and set it on the stir plate if you have one otherwise just give it a shake once in a while. During the brew day once the boil has started I grab a sanitized 1 pint mason jar, swirl up the starter real good and pour into the mason jar until full. I place that labeled jar in the fridge to crash the yeast until I need it again. I have found that the yeast cake in a 1 pint jar is plenty for making another starter with. I've had good luck re-using the same strain of yeast for many generations also.
The volume left in your starter will be pretty close to 1L. You can let it settle during the remainder of the boil, then when you are ready to pitch it in the wort just carefully decant (pour) off the top layer some. Leave a little bit of the starter wort in there so you can swirl it up real good to suspend the yeast again before pitching it into your batch. Alternately you could just pitch in the entire contents of your starter, I have done both with no change in the final product. Recently I have preferred to just decant off some of the starter to leave more head space in my fermentation bucket.
I make a 1.5L starter about 24-36 hours before brew day, the first time I use a pouch or vial of the yeast strain purchased from the supply shop. It took me a little head scratching to figure out how much water to start with but for me I found that starting with 1800ml of water and 150g of LDME works out very well. I boil it on the stove top for 20 min and the evaporation takes the volume down to 1500ml pretty consistently. Cool wort and pitch in your yeast and set it on the stir plate if you have one otherwise just give it a shake once in a while. During the brew day once the boil has started I grab a sanitized 1 pint mason jar, swirl up the starter real good and pour into the mason jar until full. I place that labeled jar in the fridge to crash the yeast until I need it again. I have found that the yeast cake in a 1 pint jar is plenty for making another starter with. I've had good luck re-using the same strain of yeast for many generations also.
The volume left in your starter will be pretty close to 1L. You can let it settle during the remainder of the boil, then when you are ready to pitch it in the wort just carefully decant (pour) off the top layer some. Leave a little bit of the starter wort in there so you can swirl it up real good to suspend the yeast again before pitching it into your batch. Alternately you could just pitch in the entire contents of your starter, I have done both with no change in the final product. Recently I have preferred to just decant off some of the starter to leave more head space in my fermentation bucket.
Had same question as OP, thank you for this explanation, been reading for a few hours now and this explained out exactly what i had been trying to figure out.
