First Time Starter Questions

[JoeSpartaNJ]

So after 40 plus batches (extract and all grain) I have decided to try making a starter as I am usually a dry yeast guy.

I plan on brewing a white IPA with an OG of 1.065 and I am using White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit yeast.

I plan on making the following stater:

2 cups water and 1/2 cup DME, boil 10 minutes, cool to 70.

Pitch yeast and small beer in to flask.

My questions are.

1. Can I do this the night before or do I need more time? I do not have a stir plate. Make starter Friday night and pitch sometime on Saturday afternoon.

2. Will this be a good enough start or should I increase the starter size?

Everything I read confuses me on this, that is why I always went with dry or no starter.

Thanks in advance.

Joe

 

[Pie_Man]

Making a starter is pretty simple, so need to worry.

Go to yeastcalculator.com, or mrmalty.com, to determine the proper starter size for your beer given the age of your yeast.

I use 100g of DME per 1L of water (10g per 100ml) which I believe is roughly the same ratio you posted, but easier for me to remember and scale. Your boil time and cooling process are fine.

One day is typically enough time to make a small smarter. I personally like to give myself a little more leeway because I crash cool my starters and decant the majority of the spent wort. If you're pitcing the whole thing, then one day is good.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, I plan on pitching the whole thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Brendad]

I just made my first starter this last friday, then pitched sunday. So about 48 hours later. Similar circumstances. 2 cups water to 1/2 cup DME. No stir plate. Chilled to room temp. When I use mrmalty it says i need a starter of 1.08 L. Soo... how does that translate to how much water/DME I use? 108grams of DME into 1.08 L of water? doesn't seem right. I don't have a flask so I just boiled on stovetop and poured into a santized growler and topped with foil. Shaking the starter when I could. I think OP and I have similar questions and any help would be appreciated.

 

[Pie_Man]

When I use mrmalty it says i need a starter of 1.08 L. Soo... how does that translate to how much water/DME I use? 108grams of DME into 1.08 L of water? doesn't seem right.

That's correct. About 1.040 OG is commonly recommend for starters. 108g of DME into 1.08L will give you about a 1.040 starter.

Using a growler is totally fine. Flasks are commonly used because you need a flat bottomed surface when using a stir plate which does not apply in your situation.

Helpful hint, I boil extra water on the side to account for boil off. So, if I boil off more than expected, it's no big deal, I just add a little more boiling water, cool everything, then pitch my yeast. Having a flask is also nice because it has volume marking on it.

 

[kcmobrewer]

If you have fermcap use it, avoid the mess on your counter lol

 

[Brendad]

so just to be clear. whatever mrmalty says (or whatever calculator you choose) when I see the "recommended starter size" I can basically just use the 1g/10mL and apply that to the recommended starter size? So you start with the weight of DME then fill up water until you meet your mL requirement? I guess I'm just curious how precise one can be in terms of billions of cells. Esp. when stepping up a starter? How can I really have any clue how many billions of cells I actually have? FWIW my first starter actually lagged for like 15 hours still... telling me maybe I didn't do everything exactly the way i should.

 

[Pie_Man]

so just to be clear. whatever mrmalty says (or whatever calculator you choose) when I see the "recommended starter size" I can basically just use the 1g/10mL and apply that to the recommended starter size?

Yes

So you start with the weight of DME then fill up water until you meet your mL requirement?

Here's my process:

1. Measure the water volume needed and bring to a boil. I boil extra water in a seperate pot to account for boil off.
2. Weigh the DME.
3. When the water starts to boil, I kill the heat, slowly stir in my DME, then put the pot back on the heat and boil for about ten minutes.
4. Tranfer my starter wort into my sanitized flask/starter vessel. Add top up water to reach final volume, if needed.
5. Chill the starter wort in an ice bath until about 60-65F.
6. Pitch yeast and aerate.

I guess I'm just curious how precise one can be in terms of billions of cells. Esp. when stepping up a starter?

These are estimates in the billions of cells. It's probably ok if you're a little off. RDWHAHB. For stepped starters, I prefer yeastcalculator.com.

How can I really have any clue how many billions of cells I actually have? FWIW my first starter actually lagged for like 15 hours still... telling me maybe I didn't do everything exactly the way i should.

Technically, one can count cells using a hemocytometer, a grid like slide used with a coloring dye to estimate cell counts. I simply trust the estimates from yeastcalculator/mrmalty as those guys (Jamil Z./Mr.Malty and Kai T./Braukaiser) have already done the pain staking task of counting cells and deriving growth formulas for our benefit.

In my experience, starters tend to lag just a few hours as you have tens of billions of cells in a relatively small volume of wort. I have had starters with little krausen though. Look at the liquid and see if there is movement.

 

[Brendad]

Thanks a lot for your wisdom I appreciate it. As a result of said first starter I'm actually having my first blowoff situation (phrasing...). I don't have a blowoff tube so i've put 3 layers of paper towel, soaked in starsan, over top of my plastic 6gal carboy with a rubber band. So far so good. Not to derail thread, but i mean yeast starter is the catalyst ...