eobie
Well-Known Member
I just got home from the lhbs to pick up some DME for a starter. I thought I grabbed light DME. Got home and it turned out I bought sparkling amber. Is this ok to use, regardless of what I'm brewing?
Does is matter what DME for starters?
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BlueZooBrewing
Well-Known Member
What is your recipe and how much did you use? It can slightly affect color and flavor but that all depends on what the final color and flavor you are going for is. If you use a brew program and calculator just add in the volume of the starter and amount of DME used, and switch out the types of DME to see how it should affect it colorwise. Flavorwise it will strengthen some of the caramel notes to varying degrees depending on the size of the starter. Might not even be noticeable at all if the other ingredients carry a similar flavor profile as the Sparkling Amber DME.
it shouldn't matter what kind of DME you use. you won't be using much anyways (i've seen a lot of recommendations of making your starter @ 1.020 - 1.030). if you can, let the starter do its thing for 12-24 hours, then put in the fridge over-night. this will cause the yeast to settle at the bottom and you can decant the spent liquid on top - result: you will be adding hardly any spent DME to your batch.
OP
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eobie
Well-Known Member
sweetcell said:
This is what I figured. I'll just cold crash and decant. I haven't even planned my next brew, just wanted to have this stuff on hand and ready to go.
JoeyChopps
Well-Known Member
+1 to sweetcell
I did the same thing as the op only I bought wheat dme. I used 3 pounds of that dme with no off flavors in any of my beers after cold crashing. It turned out to be kinda neat after cold crashing I would pour some of the spent wort in a glass to see what the yeast did to the "wheat beer" some were good and some were not but it was really cool to me Chopps
I did the same thing as the op only I bought wheat dme. I used 3 pounds of that dme with no off flavors in any of my beers after cold crashing. It turned out to be kinda neat after cold crashing I would pour some of the spent wort in a glass to see what the yeast did to the "wheat beer" some were good and some were not but it was really cool to me Chopps
No need to crash cool, IMO. Less temperature shock is better. This assumes that you are fermenting in 15 gallon fermenters (because why not just use smack packs for 6-6 gallon batches?)
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eobie
Well-Known Member
because they always don't have the required number of cells. this is especially true in higher gravity beers.
So is it bad to add the starter beer liquid if you dont cold crash? I have a 16 oz starter for a 2 gallon batch im making.I want to get as much yeast in as i can. I also used 1 oz dme,this sound about right for 16 oz of water for a starter. I would have liked to use a little more but i just used up all of my dme i had left.
IMO, conventional wisdom around high gravity beers needing much higher initial yeast cell counts is wrong or at least wickedly overstated. Standard low volumes need the smack packs or vials provided by the experts (wyeast and white labs.). Of course, everyone should do what they like and mine is only one opinion.
