First starter plan: please comment

[william_shakes_beer]

Getting ready to do my first starter, here is my plan. Any input would be appreciated. I plan to build a starter for this weekend's brew day and then siphon off to 2-8oz canning jars plus 2 preforms for future cultures (not sure which size to go with, so I'm trying both)

1. boil 4 cups water, add 1/2 cup pilsen dme, strir til disolved. cool to 70f.

2. Sanitize 2l flask by soaking in starsan.

3. Sanitize a small square of foil by spraying with Starsan

4. pour starter wort into flask, add preform of yeast culture. Cover with foil

5. Shake as often as possible, 24 hrs

6. Sanitize 8 oz canning jars by boiling, then cooling to room temp

7. Sanitize preforms by soaking in a bucket of starsan

6. Swirl to suspend yeast, pour into 2 8oz canning jars plus 2 preforms

7. Repeat step 1

8. Add to flask

9. Repeat step 5

10 pitch to wort on brew day



Strain WLP 550

 

[PseudoChef]

Your ratio of DME to water is off. Going by weight is more accurate and easy to remember: 100 g DME to 1 L water. If you must measure by volume, it's 0.5 cups DME to 2 cups water.

 

[Paul07293]

Are you using an Erlenmeyer flask? You can put the water and dme in, shake it up and throw it right on the stove and boil, no need to sanitize beforehand. It's easier to mix the dme in cold water as well, doesn't get all clumpy and sticky. Ratio of dme to water for a 1.040 starter is 1g-10ml. Otherwise your procedure seems sound!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

ok. Was wondering about the ratio. 4:1 by volume is easy to remember. Wort cooling now.

 

[Aunt_Ester]

shake it up and throw it right on the stove and boil,

I've been lectured on more than one occasion not to do this on an electric range. So without any personal anecdotes to challenge Paul's advice, I'd only do that on a gas range.

 

[el_caro]

I've been lectured on more than one occasion not to do this on an electric range. So without any personal anecdotes to challenge Paul's advice, I'd only do that on a gas range.

I have done this on an electric range many times and no problem. Go for it.

 

[Paul07293]

I've been lectured on more than one occasion not to do this on an electric range. So without any personal anecdotes to challenge Paul's advice, I'd only do that on a gas range.

Interesting, I can't say I've heard of problems doing this on an electric range but for what it's worth I have a gas range. As always better safe than sorry.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Interesting the "lecture" about not boiling a flask on an electric stove. Never heard that one. I have an electric stove with a ceramic top. Is the electric stove problem related to electric entirely or only the older style with the exposed elements?

I boiled the wort in a sauce pan, cooled (my thermometer is too stubby to reach down to the bottom of a 2L flask) and poured into the flask. This AM i found nice layer of krausen. Gave it a shake before heading off to work. Tonight I'll split and re feed to prepare for brewing this weekend.

 

[Aunt_Ester]

I was advised not to do it on the electric stoves with exposed coils. As per the ceramic tops, I guess it should be fine.

Again, I've never bothered to experiment because broken glass and boiling wort is not something I want to be wrong about. At worst, I'm only reproducing a myth; at best, I could be saving someone's skin.

This is probably more of a manufacturer's dilemma than anything. The efficacy of each flask is probably only as good as they are built.

boiled the wort in a sauce pan

Alternatively, I, too, boil in a saucepan and then transfer to a flask.

 

[arnoldk2]

It is okay to do it on an electric stove as long as you use a heat diffuser. The argument is if you boil something in glass on an electric stove the coils can get really hot in one part of the coil which gives you an uneven heat distribution to your glass vessel and could cause it to break.

I just put water in a sauce pan and then put my flask in that. My home made heat diffuser. I guess you could skip the water as a sauce pan by itself will distribute the heat evenly as well.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Update: Did my brew day Saturday. Forgot to put on EITHER a blowoff tube OR an airlock. (read open gromet) Came down Sunday to a blown off lid and a nice aroma in my brew cave. This is my first starter. Ended up with 1.5 liters starter after split and refeed. The Krausen in the starter was amazing. I believe I pitched at high krausen (12 hrs after 2nd feed) Set the temp controller in the middle of the yeast range. To avoid blowouts should I do any (or all) of the following:

1. Wait for starter to finish up, cold crash and decant before pitching

2. Put the blow off tube in (will this prevent blowouts? Seems like an open grommet is less likely to get clogged than a blowoff tube)

3. Discard additional yeast and only pitch 1 Liter of suspended starter rather than 1.5 L

4. Reduce OG of recipie: that beer is always going to blow a fuse (Did this recipie previously with this strain, pitching the tube directly into the cooled fermenter. Fermentation was vigorous but the lid stayed in place)

5. Reduce temp controller to bottom of yeast range; the fermenter internal temp is always going to be higher.

6. Something else I'm not thinking of.

The recipie was a Raison D' Etre Clone, OG 1.08 and the strain is WLP 550, if it matters

 

[arnoldk2]

1. If you believe you have enough yeast cells I would cold crash the starter then eventually bring the starter back to room temp, decant and pitch.
2. If you are asking if you should put a blow off tube on the starter that isn't necessary. I usually put a sanatized piece of tin foil over the top of the starter and let it go. The co2 can get out and the bad things in the air can't get in. If your asking if you should put a blow off on you carboy then the answer is absolutely! That high of an og you will have a higher potential of a blow out if you use an airlock. A blow off prevents the blow outs.
3. I wouldn't pitch suspended yeast. The fermented wort used to produce the starter can change the taste of the beer. I would decant and pitch what you have.
4. You can reduce the og if you want but why? If you are brewing to taste or style and it calls for a high og just put a blow off tube on your carboy. The worst that will happen is that you'll end up with some krausen in your pitcher that is acting like your air lock... not a big deal.
5. Different temps produce different flavors. I would leave it in the middle temp range if that is what you wanted to do in the first place.

I think you are doing everything right. The fermentation will go nuts for a few days due to the high og but if you use a blow off tube you should be okay. Just remember, RAHAHB!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

OK, thanks. Its reassuring to hear " don't change anything". The blowoff question was with regards to preventing a primary blowout. Never had one til now. My guess is the blowoff tube will move the debris beyond the grommet and reduce the likelyhood of getting plugged up.

 

[arnoldk2]

You got it.

 

[dpittard]

Going back to using the flask directly on the stove, do you guys put the flask in an ice-water bath to cool it as well? Typical convention tells me that the glass couldn't handle that rapid temp change, but I'm not sure if the flask is typical glass.

 

[arnoldk2]

Going back to using the flask directly on the stove, do you guys put the flask in an ice-water bath to cool it as well? Typical convention tells me that the glass couldn't handle that rapid temp change, but I'm not sure if the flask is typical glass.

If it is Pyrex you should be okay but I understand your concern. I have a hard time putting hot glass in an ice bath. Normally what i try to do is sit my flask on a wash cloth and put it in my freezer and let it sit in the freezer for like 20 minutes. After that I start an ice bath take the flask from the freezer and put it in the ice bath to cool it down the rest of the way. Ive never had an issue. I should note that I'm probably being overly cautious too.

 

[Aunt_Ester]

Borosilicate glass will stand up to extreme temps just fine.

If you're still anxious, I would boil in a pot then put the pot in the ice bath. You can transfer to a sanitized flask afterwards. Getting the temps down rapidly is more important to worry about.

Normally what i try to do is sit my flask on a wash cloth and put it in my freezer and let it sit in the freezer for like 20 minutes.

Your freezer is full of bacteria; I wouldn't advise this.

Moreover, placing a sealed container with hot food (or drink) in the freezer to cool without proper ventilation will promote mold growth. I know it's not entirely applicable to the situation because you're only describing keeping the container in there a moment (and you didn't mention that it was sealed), but it's just something I learned from years of cooking on a line.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Another question, back to splitting the starter before refeed (see original post) When I harvested, it seemed to make sense to fill the entire harvest receptacle with liquid to minimize the yeast's available oxygen and be sure they take a nice long nap. I used the fermented beer at the top of the cold crashed starter to do this. I filled te harvest container 1/2 full with beer, discarded the rest and then top off harvest container with slurry. Is this a good practice? In retrospect perhaps I should have had some boiled cooled water available to top off, rather than storing my harvested yeast in its own waste.

 

[arnoldk2]

Are you talking about washing yeast and storing for another brew session later on?

 

[william_shakes_beer]

No. In this instance I was harvesting from the stepped up a starter. 1 liter to receive the initial innoculation, ferment, cold crash, decant, refeed, ferment, cold crash, harvest, pitch the remainder.

 

[arnoldk2]

Oh... I have no experience with that, sorry.