3 week old starter

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jessej122

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Had the starter in the fridge for the last 3 weeks something came up and couldn't brew. Am I better off decanting and making another starter with this yeast? Or just warm up to room temp and pitch what I have?
 
I don't make starters, so I don't know how helpful this is, but I like to just pitch a portion of my yeast from my last batch into my next batch. So it's kinda like having a starter that sits around for a few weeks. I think plenty of people do this so I wouldn't worry.
 
Do both: take some yeast from the first ferm'n, stick in a bottle in fridge, settle, decant and add fresh clean water, settle. Prep a starter soln: Y nutrient, DME, dextrose, water, add a thick slurry of the Y from fridge, aerate well, stir. Let it go until it settles. You can use now, or give it another run in similar solution. I like to generate NEW yeast cells.
I've used Wyeast1728 from bottom of a year-old Ale, made successful starter, good ferm'n.
Larger starter, better chance of good ferm'n.

Better way: Buy fresh Y, make large starter, ie, twice what you need. Use half, find how to freeze other half. Thaw and repeat. This way, the Y is ALWAYS new, and you save $$$.
 
Had the starter in the fridge for the last 3 weeks something came up and couldn't brew. Am I better off decanting and making another starter with this yeast? Or just warm up to room temp and pitch what I have?

Jesse,
If the original starter is the correct size, just warm up and pitch. I usually put my starter in refrigerator for 1-1.5 weeks, decant and pitch, usually starts to ferment in 2-5 hours.The last ten batches I achieved between 80-88%attenuation, 88 being my best. So in my opinion an extra week and a half in frige should be fine.
 
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