I've been reading about starters for two days now, listened to the BrewStrong show about them, and I guess I have more questions than I did before I started...
The consensus seems to be that one should use a stir plate, and decant.
Now, I'm not too lazy to build a DIY stir plate, but I'm wondering if it actually might be better to use simple starters (no shaking or stir plate) combined with pitching the whole starter. Kaiser among others has touted the benefits of pitching starters at high krausen. So my questions are (and there are many, I apologize...)
1) Why force the yeast to go dormant by letting them eat all the available sugar and refrigerating them for a day before decanting and pitching? Is it not better to continuously step them up (e.g. pitch 2-3 quart starter right into the 5 gallon wort)?
2) Why continuously aerate the wort if the yeast will propagate themselves just fine in an open container? Is it just for speed, or is it better for the finished beer in some way?
3) Many people say the starters are oxidized so it's bad to pitch them. How can a simple starter at high krausen be oxidized? I thought this doesn't happen until fermentation is over?
4) Many people say that the starter wort tastes bad... but to me it doesn't taste any different than beer at that stage of fermentation. It's got a ton of suspended yeast, it's flat, and it's green as green can be... but it would eventually taste just fine given enough time right?
5) Aaand finally, do some yeast respond better to stir plates, while some respond better to open fermentation, and some to closed (air lock on the starter)? Anybody know what's best for each strain, or is there a way to tell?
The consensus seems to be that one should use a stir plate, and decant.
Now, I'm not too lazy to build a DIY stir plate, but I'm wondering if it actually might be better to use simple starters (no shaking or stir plate) combined with pitching the whole starter. Kaiser among others has touted the benefits of pitching starters at high krausen. So my questions are (and there are many, I apologize...)
1) Why force the yeast to go dormant by letting them eat all the available sugar and refrigerating them for a day before decanting and pitching? Is it not better to continuously step them up (e.g. pitch 2-3 quart starter right into the 5 gallon wort)?
2) Why continuously aerate the wort if the yeast will propagate themselves just fine in an open container? Is it just for speed, or is it better for the finished beer in some way?
3) Many people say the starters are oxidized so it's bad to pitch them. How can a simple starter at high krausen be oxidized? I thought this doesn't happen until fermentation is over?
4) Many people say that the starter wort tastes bad... but to me it doesn't taste any different than beer at that stage of fermentation. It's got a ton of suspended yeast, it's flat, and it's green as green can be... but it would eventually taste just fine given enough time right?
5) Aaand finally, do some yeast respond better to stir plates, while some respond better to open fermentation, and some to closed (air lock on the starter)? Anybody know what's best for each strain, or is there a way to tell?