My first smack pack & starter. Not an idiot, but am I doing it right?

[de5m0mike]

I bought my first smack pack last night. I'm brewing a rye beer tomorrow and I read how the Wyeast 1272-American Ale II was suppose to be really good at bringing out the rye. Anyway, I smacked it and let it set over night, about 8 hours. I was told by the LHBS that I didn't need to do a starter but I was kind of thinking I might like to get a second batch out of it so I did a standard 2 cups water/Half cup DME, boil 10 min. and add the yeast. Covered with tin foil and let set on the counter all day. Swirling when ever I got a chance. So after a bunch of reading on line today I came to the conclusion that this might not give me enough yeast for this batch, plus some to save for a second so I did a another 2 cup/half cup wart and poured that in. This was about 12 hours after the original. I now have a 1 quart mason jar full of about 1.04 wart and the contents of one smack pack. My plan is to let this sit over night and pitch it to my rye beer which will have a target O.G. of 1.059. What I'm hoping to do however is pour off the top half or more into a second sterile mason jar so I can save some, and pour in the rest of the thick yeast that has hopefully settled to the bottom into my rye. The way I figure it, I'll get most of the yeast into this batch but the liquid off the top that I saved should still have enough yeast in it for me to grow over the next few days or weeks and then use in my next batch. So I guess I'm just second guessing myself here as to weather or not this is a good idea or if I should pitch the whole thing in this batch and try to wash/harvest it when this one is done. Maybe when I transfer to secondary or something. Also, I don't have an autoclave, but I did boil the mason jar that I'm currently using for the recommended 20 min. Is this really necessary? I don't understand why I can clean my carboy with star san and pitch into that just fine without boiling it. Why can't I just sanitize my mason jars the same way?

Sorry, this got longer than expected. Thanks for reading anyway, and for any advice you can give.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]so I did a standard 2 cups DME/Half cup water[...]

That has to be backwards (at the very least!) as it calculates to an SG of over 2.0

[edit] And if it is backwards, (2 cups water/.5 cups DME) it's still pretty high at over 1.060 SG...

Cheers!

 

[midfielder5]

With 5 gallons of OG over 1.020, ie most beers we make-- you do need a starter with liquid yeast per mr. malty.

and i do not think 24 -30 or so hours (if i read that right) is enough time for them to propigate enough for you to take some off in a mason jar for later.
good luck

 

[midfielder5]

By boiling you are sterilizing, a higher level than sanitizing. I had the same thought as you and stopped boiling... but yeast all went bad when stored over time so I am back to boiling.

 

[de5m0mike]

Yep, that was backwards. (now fixed in original post) I thought it was suppose to work out closer to 1.040 but of course I didn't check the numbers I just trusted a video I watched on youtube.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhFerNTwbQ]Homebrew 101: Making a Yeast Starter | Beer Geek Nation Beer Reviews - YouTube[/ame]

 

[de5m0mike]

Well, I decided to pour all of the yeast into this batch. I think I'm going to start looking into how to harvest/wash it later though.

 

[paulster2626]

Well, I decided to pour all of the yeast into this batch. I think I'm going to start looking into how to harvest/wash it later though.

This is what you should be doing. No sense in saving some from the starter IMO. Washing yeast is really simple. I just use a big-ass jar, and then split it in to 2 smaller mason jars. Works like a charm.