Do you use the whole Starter volume or not?

[bmckee56]

I use starters on all my brews (most all - not Safale-05) and I typically dump the entire starter into the wort. Is this the right way of doing it or am I supposed to remove the top layer of liquid and just add the yeasties?

How do you do it?

 

[beowulf]

Lately I've been trying to cold crash and just pour in a little liquid with the yeast. But of course that takes some planning. If I'm running short of time, I might just dump the whole thing in, especially if the starter is a bit smaller. I haven't had a bad batch as a result of either. I typically try a little harder to plan with high gravity recipes where the starter is much larger (3-4 qts). Adding a gallon of starter can throw things way off, but still is not always that bad in the end. For really big beers, I've found that just using a yeastcake from a smaller beer is so much easier.

 

[Wolfy]

The 'right way' is whatever works for you and your procedures, and lets you make beer that tastes as good as it can for you.

I use a starter to grow yeast, hence I ferment them warm and on a stir plate, I usually use left over wort from previous brews, so if I pitched the entire starter into my beer there is a very good chance there will be a bunch of off/strange/bad flavours ... which is why I let the yeast settle and pitch only the yeast.

 

[bmckee56]

I have in many cases used the cake from previous brews. It is a great way to get a beer going quickly. I have a Belgian Wit in the primary right now and have the ingredients to do another when the first is ready to rack. This works out great for me because one of my taps in the game room is dedicated to SWMBO's favorite beer - Belgian Wit.

Salute!