GF Yeast Starters

[TahoePowderHound]

I thumbed through about 15 pages and couldn't find a thread on this so here we go.

Who's making yeast starters for brew day? What's your process? What fermentables do you add, and do you bother with reaching any specific gravity? Do you notice a difference from simply rehydrating your dried yeast?

 

[TahoePowderHound]

Just read that "dry yeast does not require a yeast starter because one packet contains enough cells for a 5 gallon batch". Beer smith calculations would seem to disagree...

 

[glutarded-chris]

I would say if you hydrate, then one packet of dry yeast is probably fine. If you spread it dry on the surface, then you probably need to overpitch a little to get the same number of healthy cells. I used to hydrate before pitching, but out of laziness I went back to just carefully dusting it on the surface and letting the yeast settle in. I had some batches that were slow to get started, so with advice from this forum, I started overpitching. I put in 1 full packet and then a quarter to a third of a second package.

 

[Legume]

I make a series of several sucessive starters if using liquid yeast, to culture the yeast away from the gluten containing media it comes in. Its a bit of work, so when I do this I overbuild my last starter and store some yeast for a future batch. I often get 6-8 uses out of one liquid yeast purchace by doing this.

I use sorghum extract with a little yeast nutrient to make starters, and target a gravity of 1.040.

No starter for dry yeast.