How to make a yeast starter - Pictorial

[chanson16]

I just made my first starter. It has been less than 24 hours and it is at high kraesen. There is a fair amount of trub in the bottom. Should I pitch the whole thing or just the liquid off the top of the trub?

 

[chanson16]

I just made my first starter. It has been less than 24 hours and it is at high kraesen. There is a fair amount of trub in the bottom. Should I pitch the whole thing or just the liquid off the top of the trub?

I am getting close to pitching so any thoughts would be a big help. Thanks!

 

[ianw58]

All that tub in the bottom IS the yeast you want to pitch. If anything, decant some of the liquor off the top, swirl the flask to resuspend the yeast and THEN pitch.

 

[chanson16]

All that tub in the bottom IS the yeast you want to pitch. If anything, decant some of the liquor off the top, swirl the flask to resuspend the yeast and THEN pitch.

Since it is fermenting, the yeast isn't in suspension?

 

[ianw58]

No.

Yeast can be suspended and NOT fermenting.

Yeast flocculates, or clumps together, at certain phases of development/fermentation. Floculated yeast is what you're seeing at the bottom. This is NOT dead yeast. It just "resting".

One of the reasons that many of us use a stir plate for starters is that the stirring keeps the yeast suspended AND helps provide oxygen for aerobic growth.

If you wash and reuse yeast from your brew sessions, allowing the yeast to flocuulate and fall to the bottom helps separate the gunk from the healthy yeast.

Trust me, pour off a bit of the liquid on top so that it doesn't affect the OG of the wort. Swirl the flask and pitch the good stuff from the bottom.

Kick back. Pour yourself a glass of beer from a previous brew up and relax. This is not rocket surgery! People have been brewing good beer for thousands of years!

 

[wilsojos]

If you don't have a stir plate, you can give your flask a good shake every time you walk by. I usually make my starter 24 hours before I brew and shake/swirl it every chance I get to keep yeast party going.

 

[chanson16]

No.

Yeast can be suspended and NOT fermenting.

Yeast flocculates, or clumps together, at certain phases of development/fermentation. Floculated yeast is what you're seeing at the bottom. This is NOT dead yeast. It just "resting".

One of the reasons that many of us use a stir plate for starters is that the stirring keeps the yeast suspended AND helps provide oxygen for aerobic growth.

If you wash and reuse yeast from your brew sessions, allowing the yeast to flocuulate and fall to the bottom helps separate the gunk from the healthy yeast.

Trust me, pour off a bit of the liquid on top so that it doesn't affect the OG of the wort. Swirl the flask and pitch the good stuff from the bottom.

Kick back. Pour yourself a glass of beer from a previous brew up and relax. This is not rocket surgery! People have been brewing good beer for thousands of years!

Thanks!!! I did a 1.75L starter. How much would you poor off?

 

[mike_in_ak]

Lots of info in this here thread.

 

[BrewMasta]

Poor off most of the liquid carefully, and leave just enough of the liquid in the flask to be able to stir up the yeasties on the bottom of the flask. I do this by swirling the flask in a circular motion until I don't see anymore yeast stuck to the bottom of the flask, and I do this just before pitching the yeast. Also make sure the starter is at room temp at least before pitching it. This will insure quick response from the yeasties in your fermenter.

 

[BrewMasta]

I also cold crash my starters over night before my brew day, then I take it out of the fridge, let it come to room temp before I poor off the liquid (now beer) and swirl as described above, and pitch.

 

[davebstock]

Vert helpful post. Doing my first all grain soon.

 

[Leppy]

Thanks for this. The next recipe I am looking at calls for a starter and i wasn't really sure how to do it.

 

[tre9er]

Dry yeast is packaged and ready to use in peak condition so if you make a starter with it you just end up depleting the yeast's reserves and actually decrease the ability of the yeast to go to work with optimum capabilities on the wort. Rehydrating is the best way to get the most from your package of dry yeast.

Boil some water then let cool down to 95-105*f, into 1 cupful pour the contents of your packet and let it sit on the surface. It'll gradually start dropping to the bottom and eventually start foaming/turning creamy. You can give it a bit of a stir now to make the slurry a nice, even, viscosity. Ideally you want to get the rehydrated yeast slurry and your wort to a temp difference of less than 10*f of each other for pitching, so as not to shock the yeast, and some say that absolute optimum for pitching is within 40 minutes of beginning rehydration, although I've also seen 15 minutes mentioned.

It's possible to get decent results by just sprinkling dry yeast on the surface of your wort but something like a 40% to 60% depletion of the yeast, from instant exposure to the sugars, can result.

I've made a few starters from dry yeast. Sprinkling it into starter wort isn't much different from sprinkling it into a fermenter...it's sugar water for it to multiply and ferment. I would rehydrate it first, yes.

The reason I do this is so I can just buy one packet of US-05 and still use it on 9g of beer. It's worked fantastically for me, using the various calculators to determine the proper starter size, of course.

 

[Ogri]

I've made a few starters from dry yeast. Sprinkling it into starter wort isn't much different from sprinkling it into a fermenter...it's sugar water for it to multiply and ferment. I would rehydrate it first, yes.

The reason I do this is so I can just buy one packet of US-05 and still use it on 9g of beer. It's worked fantastically for me, using the various calculators to determine the proper starter size, of course.

Yeah, I was definitely guilty there of regurgitating what I'd read, believed and taken as gospel regarding dry yeast, here on HBT


What you say there makes sense, right enough. Rehydrate then pitch into your starter wort. If properly rehydrated first they can be introduced into the starter wort without any worries about further depletion from sugar shock (or whatever it is that depletes their viability when pitched powder to wort)and healthy propagation should begin pretty rapidly. Will give it a bash on an upcoming batch.

Wonder if it'd be possible to do that with S-23 or W34/70 to make an effective starter for a lager. They're always quite a bit more expensive than US-05 and S-04 here and when I look at a yeast calculator like Mr malty they usually show that I need about 2 packs.

 

[tre9er]

Yeah, I was definitely guilty there of regurgitating what I'd read, believed and taken as gospel regarding dry yeast, here on HBT


What you say there makes sense, right enough. Rehydrate then pitch into your starter wort. If properly rehydrated first they can be introduced into the starter wort without any worries about further depletion from sugar shock (or whatever it is that depletes their viability when pitched powder to wort)and healthy propagation should begin pretty rapidly. Will give it a bash on an upcoming batch.

Wonder if it'd be possible to do that with S-23 or W34/70 to make an effective starter for a lager. They're always quite a bit more expensive than US-05 and S-04 here and when I look at a yeast calculator like Mr malty they usually show that I need about 2 packs.

There's no reason why you can't. Once you rehydrate it, it's just like liquid yeast. I've had no issues thus-far.

 

[Ogri]

There's no reason why you can't. Once you rehydrate it, it's just like liquid yeast. I've had no issues thus-far.

Yes, exactly. In fact, now that I think about it, could it possibly be even better than using liquid yeast purchased through the usual channels, in terms of viability (and definitely in terms of volume), unless you are able to get hold of a pack/vial of LY that was made something like 20 minutes ago?:fro::rockin:

 

[perrypainter]

H big a role does headspace play in a starter? I've always just boiled 1/4-1/2 c dme in 2 cups water for 15 mins and threw it in a sanitized 2L growler. Is that too big of a vessel? Should I use a 1L growler?

 

[jethro55]

Here is an article from one of HBT's experts about yeast starters and yeast harvesting. I really thought it made a lot of sense.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

Hat's off to the Brulosopher !

 

[tg123]

i made a starter and then couldn't get around to brewing so I put it in the fridge for 4 days. Is it still ok and should I make another starter to wake up the yeast? Also, there seems to be a green ring around the growler where the krausen was forming.
smelled it and it smells fine.

 

[Bierliebhaber]

i made a starter and then couldn't get around to brewing so I put it in the fridge for 4 days. Is it still ok and should I make another starter to wake up the yeast? Also, there seems to be a green ring around the growler where the krausen was forming.
smelled it and it smells fine.

You're good. Just pitch it as is.

 

[tg123]

You're good. Just pitch it as is.

thanks for the confirmation.

 

[dp69_2001]

If you used hops in your starter you could hope it was that. Did it finish before you refrigerated it?

 

[tg123]

If you used hops in your starter you could hope it was that. Did it finish before you refrigerated it?

I'm not sure if it finished. It was on a stir plate for about 2 days but I didn't take a gravity reading to verify. Had to stick it into the fridge and run out. Hoping it's not mold.

I went ahead and made another starter with it in preparation for tomorrow's brew. It's going strong with a pretty thick later of krausen forming on top. I'll probably split some off and save part of it for another brew in the future.

 

[dp69_2001]

Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.

 

[tg123]

Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.

Nope. no hops except maybe leftover from what I washed and harvested from the first batch of beer. Seems to be healthy right now with it back on the stirplate so I have high hopes. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Quimby]

DB I just wanted to say thank you for this information. I have been brewing for a couple of years and waited way to long to start using Yeast Starters.
I have heard about doing this for a long time and what got me started was I got a bad yeast once. If I was using a starter I would have know it was dead before pitching. Thats what got me converted to this.
I got a starter going yesterday. It looked real good when I pitched it today and I checked it an hour and a half later and the airlock was already bubbling.

Thank you again.

 

[tg123]

Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?

Probably just Krausen. I'd imagine on a stir plate for 2 days it would have fermented. Might wanna let it get up to room temp before you toss it in though.

You never did say if you used hops or not. If it's a healthy batch of yeast, it can beat the baddies though.

So I brewed up a batch today and when I went to pitch I took a little whiff to see what it smelled like. It seemed to smell a bit on the sour side to me. It was 9pm and the LHBS was closed already...so I remembered what you said, "what's the worst that could happen?" and pitched it. :cross:

Hope that wasn't a mistake. ipe:

 

[garrett_8]

Going cross eyed trying to find the answers to all my starter/washing questions! Found a bunch, maybe a little help with the last couple?

Is it nessisary to chill and decant when stepping up from 1 to 2 liters or can I just throw some fresh wort into the container and let er buck?

Everyone says use dme, got it. Any reason not to use up a gallon of amber lme I've got laying around?

 

[kapbrew13]

Going cross eyed trying to find the answers to all my starter/washing questions! Found a bunch, maybe a little help with the last couple?

Is it nessisary to chill and decant when stepping up from 1 to 2 liters or can I just throw some fresh wort into the container and let er buck?

Everyone says use dme, got it. Any reason not to use up a gallon of amber lme I've got laying around?

Decant. If you add more liquid you won't get the desired 1.040.
Use the lme if you have it.

 

[crzepilot]

Approximately how much liquid are we taking off the top of the starter?