First time using liquid yeast

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Wilsons

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
1
Location
Princeton WV
OK, searched around all morning but havent found a defenitive answer, so im hoping all you brew masters can give me some input :)

I have a Pumpkin Ale kit on its way here now from Austin Brew supply, and i ordered with the liquid yeast due to thier recomendation. Now everything ive read says i need to make a starter, and ive found some direction on how to do that, but i have a question or 2

First does anyone have a link to step by step starter instructions, coudnt find a very clear guide

And second, the guides i have seen say to use DME to make the starter, but the problem is i dont have any of that, and the kit is coming with liquid extract, can i use a little of teh extract to make a starter, or maybe some sugar? What would you all recomend? Thank you!
 
Check this topic and the subsequent discussion. It'll tell you everything you need to know.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-76101/

As for a substitute for DME, you definitely will not want to use table sugar (sucrose) because the yeast will "forget" how to process other types of sugars such as maltose that are in wort. Using some of the liquid extract would be preferable if that's all you've got, but you will need more of the LME than you would DME to get to the same gravity in your starter. I'm sure there's a calculator somewhere that will tell you how much to use instead of DME.

If you do use some of your LME from the recipe, you may want to consider pitching the entire starter (instead of decanting, see the thread above for details) so that you don't lose those gravity points from your actual beer wort.
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Starter

I typically use light DME for my starters. I made that same pumpkin ale kit a few months back. I added 3 of the smaller tins of pure organic pumpkin in the mash and it tasted pretty good - very crisp.

If I were to make it again, I would probably added another packet of the spices, as after a couple of months I could hardly taste the spices. It had totally mellowed out.
 
Here's the conversion rate for substituting LME for DME. Do this and you should be just fine using some of your LME for the starter. Ideally you want to end up with a starter OG of about 1.040, but a few points more or less will be okay.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/lme-dme-conversion-174602/

For future brews, you can get yourself a 1 or 3 lb bag of Extra Light or Light DME from Austin Homebrew (or wherever else you order from) and use that. 1 lb of DME will be enough to make starters for your next few batches.
 
OK let me see if i get this right


The ratio for DME to LME is 1 to 1.25, so i would need 1.25 cups of LME to make the starter, now is losing the 1.25 cups from my wort going to be noticable, or would i just pour it all back in when i pitch the yeast?
 
OK let me see if i get this right


The ratio for DME to LME is 1 to 1.25, so i would need 1.25 cups of LME to make the starter, now is losing the 1.25 cups from my wort going to be noticable, or would i just pour it all back in when i pitch the yeast?
I think somewhere further down in that thread is another recipe which calls for 100 g of DME per 1 L of water. In my experience, a cup of DME is usually a little more than 100 g, so if you can measure by weight, that would be preferable. 125 g of LME should be just right.

If you can't measure by weight, you can measure the LME by volume and estimate 1.25 cups - but your starter will probably be a little higher in gravity than 1.040. That won't be a problem, but since you have a limited amount of LME, you want to save as much as possible for the actual beer wort. That's why I'd recommend the 125 g if you can.

Ultimately, if you get your starter wort in the ballpark of 1.040 OG, you're in great shape. If you don't get it exact, it's no big deal ... any starter will be better than no starter when dealing with liquid yeast.

As for your last question ... you've probably read there are 2 schools of thought on how to pitch your starter: decant the starter "beer" and pitch just the yeast slurry, or pitch the whole thing. I usually decant, but in your situation, you may want to pitch the whole starter so that the extract you subtracted from your recipe ends up back in the beer. Remember to swirl the starter before you pour, to re-suspend the yeast that has flocculated out, so it pours easily.

Just keep in mind that that portion of the extract/wort that you pitch back in is already fermented, so you will still be a few points under your expected OG. But the beer should turn out just fine.
 
Back
Top