Coffee filter for yeast stater?

[Spelaeus]

Planning my second brew and my first yeast starter. This is a 100% WLP644 Brett trois brew and I've heard that White Labs packages their Brett strains at much lower cell counts than their Saccharomyces strains so I plan on doing a stepped starter in a glass gallon jug. Given that I really want this thing to get PLENTY of oxygen, would it be safe to just cover the mouth of the jug with a coffee filter that has been soaked in vodka, held on with a sanitized rubber band? Or is that too much of an infection risk in low grav, unhopped starter wort?

Edit: If anyone finds the R that ran away from my title, please let me know. It will be punished accordingly.

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

Gallon starter is a pretty good starter size, you should have plenty of yeast/brett bugs. I use foil over my starters. The best way to boost cell count is with a stir plate. I personally wouldn't worry about a step to a gallon. The yeast tube should be fine going right I to a full gallon of starter wort.

 

[Spelaeus]

All right, I'll just do a one-step, then. Unfortunately the funds don't allow a stir plate right now, which is part of why I was thinking of doing the coffee filter since it's only going to be oxygenated by regular sloshing.

 

[estricklin]

I've also, always done the aluminum foil with the rubber band. I honestly don't think you'll gain much by using the coffee filter but I don't think it e'll hurt anything either.

You can build a stir plate REALLY cheap too by the way. Tons of threads on how to do that if your ever interested.

 

[geoffey]

I'm not what you're trying to accomplish by using a coffee filter vs aluminum foil. Loose fitting aluminum foil will let in plenty of oxygen. A filter is probably just fine too. Can't imagine it would let in any wild bugs through the filter. But why not go with a tried and true method with aluminum foil?


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[geoffey]

Oh, and from what I've recently read you'll want to leave 6-8 days for your Brett starter to complete, as opposed to 18-24 hrs for a normal sacch yeast starter.


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[Beernik]

All right, I'll just do a one-step, then. Unfortunately the funds don't allow a stir plate right now, which is part of why I was thinking of doing the coffee filter since it's only going to be oxygenated by regular sloshing.

That's what I thought about a stir plate. Then I realized if I canibalized the computer fan, hard drive magnet, and a frame from an old computer, cut the end off an old phone charger, and grabbed a plug-in rheostat for dimming lamps, I could build a stir plate for free. I only needed to buy the stir bar.

Unfortunately, glass gallon jugs tend to not work well for stir plates because they have convex bottom. A 2L flask is about $30. Find someone who would be willing to make it a birthday or Christmas present to you.