First Starter?

[NOLA_NICK]

First post please be gentle.

Made my first starter last Thursday. 1 liter with approx. 100 grams of DME. After 60 hours the thing finally had krauesen with small yeast cake on bottom of flask. After it was finished I put it in the fridge to cold crash. I plan on brewing on Saturday (American Pale Ale) OG 1.051. I was thinking of adding another liter to the yeast cake. Is this neccesary. The only thing that worries me was the amount of time it took to reach high krauesen. Any info would be greatly appriciated. The yeast being pitched is WLP001 California Ale Yeast.


Cheers

P.S. This site is awsome :rockin:

 

[schweaty]

Welcome to HBT!

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

This calculator will help you figure out how large your starter needs to be. If you plan on making starters regularly it should become an integral tool before your brew days. According to your planned OG, the calculator said that with a simple starter (without a stir plate, O2, shaking) you need 1.72 Liters. If you weren't shaking the starter regularly it would be a good practice to do so in the future. Furthermore, if you plan on doing starters regulary I'd suggesting making a do it yourself stirplate.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/homemade-stir-plate-lessons-learned-tips-64365/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-stir-plate-under-10-a-199034/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-cigar-box-stir-plate-193279/

 

[NOLA_NICK]

Thanks for the fast response. Should I be worried about the time it took to to reach high krauesen. I think I am going to add another liter tonight. Thanks again schweaty

 

[trigger]

I wouldn't worry about the lag time. When you toss that next litre in there it'll probably fire up much quicker. Even if it doesn't ferment out completely by your brew day you can still use it by pitching the whole starter at high krausen. Since you already cold crashed I would decant the liquid off the top before adding the new wort, though. And shaking will help.

 

[NOLA_NICK]

Cool will do. Thanks

 

[Skaggz]

I wouldn't worry about the krauesen either. I've had starters that had no krauesen, and starters that had so much that it came out the top of the flask(1 liter in a 2 liter flask), even on the stir plate.

As mentioned above, make sure you stir it regularly. And by regularly, I mean every time you walk by it. Even if you shook it 10 minutes ago, shake it again!

If you are planning on stepping up the starter again today, and using it on Saturday, I wouldn't worry about cold crashing again. But do decant off the old wort before you add new for stepping up. Don't decant when you pitch it into your 5 gallon batch.