Do I need a starter?

[nfc_andy]

I'm brewing a Wee Heavy Saturday and picked up the ingredients tonight. I'm going with the WLP028 Edinburgh yeast and was planning on making a starter. The yeast at the store was a few days past selling date so I got two vials thrown in at no cost and I'm wondering if pitching the two vials is the equivalent of making a starter. I've never made a starter so pitching the two vials is the easy way out but if it'll work I'm game.

 

[NewBrew75]

If they are old, I would probably still make a starter. Check out Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

This will help you the best.

 

[BigEd]

I'm wondering if pitching the two vials is the equivalent of making a starter.

No, it's not. Making even a basic starter is going to make the yeast more active than the semi-dormant ones in the package. Taking the time to make a larger and steped-up starter will also get you a larger quantity of yeast. A large, viable starter with any beer, but especially with a big one, will shorten the lag time, make a stronger & cleaner ferment and yield a beer with better attentuation. So do you need to make a starter? No, you can make beer without one but you can make better beer if you do.

 

[NewBrew75]

I just did a quick Mr. Malty calc on your given info, and you should make a large starger with both of the vials.

 

[andyb0527]

+1 on making the starter. White labs actually recomends making a starter with high gravity beers anyways. Plus with it past the date it is probably a good idea.

 

[alpo]

The couple sites I've seen put Wee Heavy OG at 1.090. So, yes, you definitely need a starter.

You'd better start it tonight or early tomorrow morning, if you're planning on brewing Saturday, because it generally takes 36 hours or so.

 

[nfc_andy]

My target OG is 1.110 so I guess I'm going to make that starter afterall. Can anyone point me to a quick and dirty starter guide? This'll be my first starter and I'd prefer not to put off the brew since I can only brew Saturdays, but if I make the starter Friday night and brew Saturday afternoon would I be able to pitch the starter Saturday night or could I wait until Sunday morning to pitch it?

 

[Superdave]

I found this about an hour ago, as I too need to make a starter for some dormant yeast for Saturday brewing.

Yeast Starters - Home Brewing Wiki

 

[alpo]

Basic starter:

Sanitize a piece of aluminum foil, a funnel and a glass container for your yeast

Boil a pint of water in a pot
Turn off heat
Dump in a half cup of of DME and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
Mix well, dissolve all the clumps
Bring back to boil for 10 min
Pour the mini wort into the glass container and cover tight with the foil
Fill your pot back up with ice water and put the glass container inside it to cool
When the wort has cooled to 80 degrees or the glass is cool to the touch (after letting rest outside of the ice water for a min), take it out of the icebath and dry it off
Pitch the yeast
Shake it for a few minutes as best as you can without spilling it
Place the container somewhere preferably cool and dark
Pull the edges of the foil a bit so it sits loosely on the mouth of the container

After a day or two, you can put it in the fridge for a few hours (better yet, overnight)to get the yeast to settle down.
When you start brewing, take it out the fridge to warm up a bit and pour off as much starter beer as possible without loosing any yeast at the bottom.
Pitch as needed


If you have more than a couple days, you can even make a bigger starter with this yeast. Just double all the measurements above and pitch the first starter yeast into the second starter wort.

 

[nfc_andy]

Thanks for the rundown. That's the easiest explanation I've seen so far. I'm going to put off brewing until Tuesday so the starter will have plenty of time to get up and running. This is my first recipe I've created and don't want to mess it up by rushing anything.

 

[alpo]

Yeah, there really is nothing to it at all. There are ways that you can expedite the process and make it better, like by making a stir plate, etc., but I wouldn't worry about that stuff for now, if you are just starting out.

If you have a canning pressure cooker, you can make a big batch of starter wort and pasteurize a bunch of glass jars half full of the stuff at once. (like quart jars with a pine of wort) It lasts for a long time and you can bypass most of the instructions above, when you need to make a starter. Just pitch the yeast right in the jar, shake and cover.