Do you really pour an entire 2L starter into wort?

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HalfPint

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Alright, I've always used 1L flasks to make my starters, but I recently got a 2L flask. I've always dumped an entire 1L starter at high krausen into a new batch of wort. Do you guys do this with an entire 2L starter or do you let it ferment all the way out and then cold-crash/decant?

Thanks,
J
 
I start the starter earlier, so it's settled down by brew day, then decant the "beer" on top, leaving just a bit to swirl around and make a slurry with. Others, and I think this is fairly standard procedure, crash cool their starters to achieve a similar result. 2L of starter would shift the profile of the beer, especially the English beers I most often make starters for.
 
I'll make the starter on Friday morning, throw in in the fridge Saturday night, and decant it Sunday at the start of brew day and let it come up to room temp while i brew.
 
I used to dump the entire thing when I was using a 1L starter. Now I have a 3L flask and I make my starter 5-6 days in advance and cold crash it for a couple days before decanting and pitching.
 
I'm horrible at planning a brew day and do most on a spur of the moment thing. So, I'll make a starter, let it do it's thing and stick in the fridge. Decant and let warm up on brew day.
 
Let my starter finish in my 2L flask, cold crash then decant before pitching. Always great results.

:mug:
 
My starters are between 1L and 1.8L typically. Obviously the bigger starters are for higher gravity brews and they typically have lots of hops. I actually figure in my large starter when I brew that way I just plop it all in. Not sure if that's "good" to do but it makes sense to me.
 
I just pitched a 1.9 liter WLP007 starter into my batch of barleywine yesterday.

More typically, they're between 1.3 and 1.8 liters.

I was skeptical at first too, but I've been doing it now for a long time, and it's always been just fine. I prefer to pitch as close to high krausen as possible rather than let the starter ferment all the way out and decant. (But that works too.)
 
the best beer i ever made was a all centennial IPA and i dumped the whole 2 liter starter no decant, the fermentation was so healthy, when i took the lid off the bucket to rack to a keg it had almost a vitamin aroma and the actual beer was clean as could be and very bright, i tried every method out there and my vote is anything over 2 liters crash and decant but 2l and under pitch at high krausen,just my opinion
 
the best beer i ever made was a all centennial IPA and i dumped the whole 2 liter starter no decant, the fermentation was so healthy, when i took the lid off the bucket to rack to a keg it had almost a vitamin aroma and the actual beer was clean as could be and very bright, i tried every method out there and my vote is anything over 2 liters crash and decant but 2l and under pitch at high krausen,just my opinion
Nothing to add, but those are exactly my thoughts as well. It has worked out well for as long as I've been doing properly sized starters.
 
Wow, necro-thread!

My standard process for ales is to do a 1-liter starter. 100ml of DME, 1 liter of water, add a pinch of yeast nutrient, boil for 10 minutes. Cool to pitch temp (yeast is on the counter warming up), then oxygenate the starter wort. Yeah, I know. But I believe it matters in terms of the health of the yeast and given the rapidity with which my fermentations take off....I can't see a downside.

Anyway, I try to time the starter so that I'm ready to pitch it into the fermenter at about 17 hours, plus or minus. I oxygenate that wort in the fermenter, then I pitch the whole starter right in, no crashing, no decanting. My goal is to have the yeast find themselves in a new wort that's at the same temperature but ready to accept them into the loving arms of a nutrient-filled, oxygenated wonderland of new food. I'm hoping to time it so I have active yeast entering the new wort, and when I get the timing just right, I've had bubbling through the airlock in under 4 hours.

BTW, talked to a professional brewer this summer about whether it was better to pitch first, then oxygenate, or oxygenate then pitch. His answer: pitch while oxygenating, the bubbles will help mix up the yeast in the wort. Go figure.

The above is my standard procedure. It adds another liter of volume to the wort, but given that the starting gravity of the starter is about 1.038, it'll drop the OG of the wort in the fermenter about .001 points. So if I had 1.056 going into the fermenter, I'll end up with about 1.055 OG.
 
I used to decant. For big beers (over 8%) though, not any more. Just seemed to be extra steps and my thoughts are it is hard for beer to ruin beer, so in it goes. Get the starter going about 24 hours before brew and dump it all in. Seems reckless, but it works out really well.
 
I overbuild my starters, I boil 1500mL with 140 grams of Extra Light DME the night before. Before pitching I fill a pint jar with the starter for later use and pitch whatever is left. It is usually around 1000 mL.
 
I have started to do this a bit differently, before i would make a starter and either pitch it all or decant. Now when im brewing i pull off some wort that has boiled a bit, let it cool in fridge, add some yeast i saved after its cooled and put on stirplate overnight.. then let beer cool down in fermentor and pitch next day... works well so far and i dont need any additional starter powder....
 
Nothing to add, but those are exactly my thoughts as well. It has worked out well for as long as I've been doing properly sized starters.
right, alot of people dont like the idea of adding nasty oxidized starter wort into their main batch but the truth is yeast love oxidized wort and will clean it up, now, adding anything oxidized(who would) to a beer when the yeast is in stationary will cause problems probably but not in the beginning,charlie bamforth taught me that and from my experience nasty starter wort does not come thru the active fermentation cleans it right up
 
Never chill and decant! Otherwise you are only pitching the most flocculent cells, and are losing the benefit of the shortened lag time (and healthier ferment) from pitching actively fermenting yeast/wort. Don’t run stir plates longer than 24 hours (source - wyeast). Aim for starters that are less than 10% of the volume of the beer, otherwise decant some off the top to hit around 10% of volume. (Source - the yeast bay)
 
Wow, necro-thread!

My standard process for ales is to do a 1-liter starter. 100ml of DME, 1 liter of water, add a pinch of yeast nutrient, boil for 10 minutes. Cool to pitch temp (yeast is on the counter warming up), then oxygenate the starter wort. Yeah, I know. But I believe it matters in terms of the health of the yeast and given the rapidity with which my fermentations take off....I can't see a downside.

Anyway, I try to time the starter so that I'm ready to pitch it into the fermenter at about 17 hours, plus or minus. I oxygenate that wort in the fermenter, then I pitch the whole starter right in, no crashing, no decanting. My goal is to have the yeast find themselves in a new wort that's at the same temperature but ready to accept them into the loving arms of a nutrient-filled, oxygenated wonderland of new food. I'm hoping to time it so I have active yeast entering the new wort, and when I get the timing just right, I've had bubbling through the airlock in under 4 hours.

BTW, talked to a professional brewer this summer about whether it was better to pitch first, then oxygenate, or oxygenate then pitch. His answer: pitch while oxygenating, the bubbles will help mix up the yeast in the wort. Go figure.

The above is my standard procedure. It adds another liter of volume to the wort, but given that the starting gravity of the starter is about 1.038, it'll drop the OG of the wort in the fermenter about .001 points. So if I had 1.056 going into the fermenter, I'll end up with about 1.055 OG.

I’ve seen you post this before, but can’t recall if you do the same with lager yeasts?
 
I’ve seen you post this before, but can’t recall if you do the same with lager yeasts?

Yes, though it's a weird thing. I only make 1-liter starters for lagers too. I aim to pitch to wort that's about 70-72 degrees (starter too), and then let it sit for at least six hours. I then start moving it down to 50 degrees (my standard lager fermenting temp) over the next day or so.

What that does is allow the starter to double again at the warmer temp, which is analogous to having a 2-liter starter. And with this approach, I'm oxygenating the starter wort, and trying to time it so I pitch about 17 hours or so after beginning the starter.

I'll consult my notes later and try to nail down specific temps and times and post them. As long as you don't stay too long at the warmer temps before cooling it down, you won't get the off-flavors you'd otherwise have.

And as long as I'm already violating convention with the starter, I do an accelerated fermentation schedule....when the wort is halfway attenuated, I begin to ramp up the temp, 4 degrees every 12 hours until I get to 66, where I hold it until fermentation is complete. This speeds things up significantly and there doesn't seem to be a downside to it. Caveat: I haven't tried this with every lager yeast there is, nor with every type of lager there is. I've done it successfully with Czech Pilsner yeast and with Mexican Lager yeast. YMMV, of course. :)

EDIT: Here's one temp schedule; had the wort down to 67 when I pitched.

3:30pm Sun 67 degrees, pitch yeast (entire starter in)
11:30pm Sun drop to 58 degrees
6:30am Mon drop to 50 degrees
9:00pm Tues raise to 54 degrees (halfway attenuated; TILT hydrometer)
8:00am Wed raise to 58 degrees
8:00pm Wed raise to 62 degrees
8:00am Thu raise to 66 degrees
7:00am Sat drop to 60 degrees (gravity samples stable 1.054 --> 1.012)
7:00pm Sat drop to 54 degrees
7:00am Sun drop to 48 degrees
4:30pm Sun drop to 42 degrees (I'm impatient here :))
7:45am Mon drop to 38 degrees
6:30pm Tue KEGGED

That was my dark lager, using WLP940 Mexican Yeast. Yeah, a lager, grain to keg in 9 days.

Weird. But it works for me.
 
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