For Starters. Flatulence, Flasks and Fermcap

[PlexVector]

@Wichitalineman: For electric burner you need a heat difusser. As said earlier a coat hanger, which you need to get the coating off somehow before using or a SS from Amazon or local kitchen store.
http://www.amazon.com/Chemex-Stainless-Steel-Electric-Stove/dp/B000VTRYX6/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1435373264&sr=1-8&keywords=electric+stovetop+heat+diffuser
And BTW Gavin a very good write up, thanks!

 

[enkamania]

I did my first flask on the stove and will definitely buy some Fermcap as I had to stand over it watching for boil overs

 

[Gavin C]

@Arrheinous
Pyrex sold in the USA is not borosilicate glass. It is made of tempered glass and as such not recommended for direct heating as I outline. It will also break easily if you cool it rapidly. You need to be sure you are getting a borosilicate glass flask. Pyrex in the USA and borosilicate glass are not one and the same. DO NOT USE PYREX if following this process.

 

[quik_sk8]

Thanks for this write-up for the simple steps. I haven't done any starters yet and have been fine, but I've been saving all of my yeast and am going to want to make sure its healthy before I use it again. Once I pick up a stir plate I will surely be coming back here for a refresher!

 

[weaf27]

One of the best articles I've seen on this where I fully understood everything you did from beginning to end. Thank You.

 

[SatanPrinceOfDarkness]

greater starter on starters! but what does decant mean? That is the scariest word and why I haven't tried a starter yet. I should probably just google it...

 

[christyle]

Fantastic article, this is how they all should be. Great content, clear, concise, well written, good pictures. Bravo

 

[skuhn2004]

@thekraken
I have always let the krausen for, sprayed the tip of the fermcap bottle and added a few drops. It breaks the krausen down pretty quickly and in my opinion allows more oxygen to the surface of the starter. No infection so far.
Only downside is the krausen can sneak up on you while you are sleeping.

 

[marcopolo]

decant is a fancy word for pouring off the water/liquid and leaving the solid (yeast) mass

 

[FoxPaw]

@thekraken
I use fermcap for boiling of yeast starter, fermenting of yeast starter, boiling wort in brew pot, and in my glass carboys for fermentation with out any problems. I just follow the dosing amount per the bottle instruction. Great product for brewing.
Thanks Gavin a great write up, I picked up a few pointers to stream line my process of yeast starters, and cant agree more with you on making extra at this point to save for the next brews.

 

[rekoob]

Nice article.

 

[Gavin C]

As a follow up and to continue any discussion or debate on this topic I thought it might be useful to create a thread in the yeast & fermentation section with the article.
Thank you to all of you for reading and commenting on my article. The positive response is greatly appreciated. Hopefully it has been of use.

 

[Cyclman]

Fantastic writeup. I think that harvesting yeast directly from a starter is an underappreciated tool. I also boil my starters for 10+ min, don't know why, it just sounds "right." I have done 1/2 the starter liquid, adding the 2nd half of liquid after a few minutes to avoid boilovers (works very well, don't know where I read this), guess I need some fermcap instead.

 

[jma99]

Fermcap S is great in the fermenter!
Add 2 drops per gallon of wort.
I ferment 5+gal in a 6 gal better bottle with NO Blow-off!
BEST STUFF EVER!

 

[bhfd64]

Thanks for the great article. Sorry if this has been asked somewhere, but you don't mention use of a thermometer prior to pitching the yeast into the starter. Are you just going by feel out of the ice bath?

 

[Gavin C]

@bhfd64
Exactly right.
I just use regular tap water for the cooling. Ice would help for sure. I let it sit for a bit. Switch out the water after a while with new cold water from the tap. I'm usually doing other things at the same time so just go by feel. Swirling the flask in the cool water greatly speeds the process. The temperature of the wort and the water in the sink will equilibrate so measuring the water temperature in the sink can be done with ease if you want to.
But in short once it's cool to the touch it's safe for the yeast. No problems thus far.

 

[dmcman73]

I've just recently started to make starters but, is it necessary to decant the liquid? The way I did it was keep the yeast at room temp on a stir plate to keep the Yeast in suspension and then once the wort was in the fermentor and I used O2 on it, I pitch the whole starter directly into the wort, within 6-12 hours fermentation bubbles from the airlock appear.
I am using Light DME for the starter and some Yeast nutrients as well.

 

[Gavin C]

@dmcman73
Your methods appear sound
Both methods seem to work very well, i.e. decanting the starter wort or pitching the whole starter. It's when the starter size gets to be large that decanting the spent heavily oxygenated wort is of greater importance. My preference is to not add the starter wort to the beer for that reason. The starter size can be 10% the size of the batch in question. That will impact the headspace in the fermentor and is quite likely to negatively impact the character of the beer.

 

[thekraken]

Is the logic in step 2 backwards? It says to weigh out the dme THEN add the water to the required level, but wouldn't this create a higher gravity wort than you targeted? The calculators say to add x grams of dme and y liters of water, not (y - (x's volume)) of water. I believe these calculators work be taking the volume first, then adding extract to achieve a gravity.
While on the scale why not just add x grams of dme, tare, and y GRAMS of water? 1 mL of water = 1 gram.
Check out the 9th paragraph of this article: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2012/10/31/on-the-relationship-between-plato-and-specific-gravity/

 

[Gavin C]

@thekraken

Adding 100g of DME to 1L of water in the manner you describe will result in a plato of 9.1. This equates to an SG of 1.036. That should work just fine.

 

[thekraken]

Right. What I'm asking is if this statement is if fact true: "If this is done in the opposite manner, i.e. water first, DME second, the volume will be larger than planned and the gravity reduced accordingly."
The volume will be slightly larger but the gravity will be what the calculator called for. Your method will produce a slightly more concentrated or higher gravity wort.
I know this is probably an inconsequential detail but I just wanted to point it out for accuracy's sake.

 

[therev71]

Electric top stoves arent good for the flasks Ive heard.