Do I need a starter for a beer with a 1.04 OG?

[Okie12beer]

Up to now I have mostly used dry yeast without a starter and it has worked fine. I am branching out into washing my yeast so I can move into liquid yeast without adding too much cost. Most of the beers I will be making for the next few months are going to be dry beers with an OG around 1.040 which is the same OG as a starter.

If I am pitching enough washed yeast, do I need a starter? Or is my 5 gallons of well oxygenated wort a giant starter that will end in a nice beer?

I think I understand the need to bring them out of the cold and let them eat if they are heading off to do a big job like a 1.06 OG brew, but if I am starting at 1.040, why put them in a starter that is also 1.04?

 

[Zhaph]

Don't make a starter with dry yeast; it's actually cheaper just to pitch another package of dry yeast. Definitely "wake up" the yeast in some water before pitching, though.

 

[samc]

If I was going to pitch washed yeast that was less than a week old (approx.) I'd skip the starter. Otherwise I would make a starter. However with dry yeast the advantages of pitching a rehydrated package far outweigh the cost savings for me. You can skip the Oxygenation step!

 

[724b]

Check out the pitching rate calculator at mrmalty.com. It gives solid guidance for dry and liquid yeast.

 

[Okie12beer]

I agree that with dry yeast you never use a starter as the manufacture has already packed it with nutrients around it and a starter wastes all that effort. And I am good with MrMalty telling me how much too use. My questions is with washed liquid yeast, if I have enough of it and the wort has an OG as low as the starter would, does the starter do anything for it other than prove that it is still alive?
In weighing the cost/effort vs. benefit, I only know the effort side of this one.

 

[Zhaph]

I'm sorry, I think I misunderstood what you were asking the first time. You should check out the pitching rate calculator at mrmalty.com that was suggested, but before doing so you might want to read this: http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.htm, a list of 14 common questions about starters. Even though I've been using starters for a while myself, I still got a lot of good information out of the article; it mostly discusses vials/smack-packs of liquid yeast, but I think the following information applies to your situation:

(quoting from the link above)
"putting a fresh vial of yeast into 500 ml of wort and letting such a small starter go to completion can actually leave the yeast less ready to ferment a batch of beer. The yeast do not rebuild their reserves and have very little increase in cell mass.

The minimum starter size for significant yeast growth from a vial or pack of yeast is 1 liter. One vial or pack into 1 liter results in approximately a 50% increase in cell mass.

Some brewers make a small starter volume (500 ml or less) with the sole intent of “waking” the yeast. When making small starters, it is best to pitch the entire volume at the height of activity."

 

[unionrdr]

That's pretty much what I do. Especially last time,the dry yeast sachet was from '09,so I made a 1 1/2C starter with 1/4C DME to wake them up. I don't carewhat the so called pros say what to do/not do,it worked great for me. The dry yeast will take to it just fine,since,in theory,they're waking up for breakfast on what they'll be living on in a couple of hours. I stirred & pitched the starter at high krausen at 7:35pm. When I awoke & checked it at 7:10am,it had krausen pushing against the lid already. Flavor seemed to be better with a quicker,more vigorous start to fermentation.

 

[TreeHugger]

I agree that with dry yeast you never use a starter as the manufacture has already packed it with nutrients around it and a starter wastes all that effort. And I am good with MrMalty telling me how much too use. My questions is with washed liquid yeast, if I have enough of it and the wort has an OG as low as the starter would, does the starter do anything for it other than prove that it is still alive?
In weighing the cost/effort vs. benefit, I only know the effort side of this one.

on lower gravity beers i have just gotten it out of the fridge, let it get to room temp and dumped the whole thing in the fermenter. It works for me, but i save the whole yeast sample in one jar and dump the whole jar. my 2 cents.

 

[michael.berta]

You can skip the Oxygenation step!

Huh?