My first starter. Brew today?

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Louz

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On the advice of some of you here, I postponed my brew day last sunday because my liquid yeast needed a starter. I almost threw it in and hoped for the best, but I didnt want to mess this recipe up.
"Juicy Sundrops NEIPA" from Home Brew Supply.com. OG:1.075, Imperial Yeast Barbarian (200 Billion cell count) date is 3/5/18, 5 gallon batch.

Yesterday around 4pm I made my first starter following a video on youtube (beer geek nation is the channel name if anyone is interested). 2 cups water to 1/2 cup light dme with a flask and stir plate. Thought I'd be good to go for brew day today.... then I got screwing around on brewersfriend yeast starter calculator and ,having never used it before, it seems like my starter was going to be very short on cell count. So around 2 am last night, I boiled up another 2 cups water to 1/2 cup dme, chilled it etc and added it in.
Here it is as of right now:
starter.jpg


Looks like its getting pretty healthy. But I'm still afraid it doesnt meet the cell count needed for my recipe. I would really like to brew later today, maybe pitch as late as possible say 9pm to give it as much time as I can. Do you think I'm good? Or should I let this starter go another day, and add more wort? I have a very busy week coming up. I'm afraid I might not have time to brew in the next few days. Any advice would be appreciated
 

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On the advice of some of you here, I postponed my brew day last sunday because my liquid yeast needed a starter. I almost threw it in and hoped for the best, but I didnt want to mess this recipe up.
"Juicy Sundrops NEIPA" from Home Brew Supply.com. OG:1.075, Imperial Yeast Barbarian (200 Billion cell count) date is 3/5/18, 5 gallon batch.

Yesterday around 4pm I made my first starter following a video on youtube (beer geek nation is the channel name if anyone is interested). 2 cups water to 1/2 cup light dme with a flask and stir plate. Thought I'd be good to go for brew day today.... then I got screwing around on brewersfriend yeast starter calculator and ,having never used it before, it seems like my starter was going to be very short on cell count. So around 2 am last night, I boiled up another 2 cups water to 1/2 cup dme, chilled it etc and added it in.
Here it is as of right now:View attachment 576517

Looks like its getting pretty healthy. But I'm still afraid it doesnt meet the cell count needed for my recipe. I would really like to brew later today, maybe pitch as late as possible say 9pm to give it as much time as I can. Do you think I'm good? Or should I let this starter go another day, and add more wort? I have a very busy week coming up. I'm afraid I might not have time to brew in the next few days. Any advice would be appreciated

Are you a professional brewer whose beer must always ferment exactly the same? If not, quit worrying. Aerate the wort well, dump in your starter, and let the yeast propagate in the beer. They will do just fine.
 
Thanks. I've never made a starter so I dont know how important it is to reach the correct cell count.

I didnt get to brew yesterday because the krausen on the starter didnt stop growing until around 5 pm, which didnt leave me enough time.

I probably wont have time to brew for another two or three days.

Will sitting on the stir plate this long damage the yeast? I was thinking to buy me some time, I'll add another some more wort and continue to stir it until I'm ready to brew. It's still pretty low on cell count according to the starter calculator.
 
You can add more wort or cold crash and decant most the wort and add more fresh wort if you want to up the cell count.

If its healthey and clean i don't see any issue leaving it on the stir plate but you could put it in your fridge to cold crash and store till ready if you are worried.

If you want more cells then make use of the time. In 3 days it should chew through more wort if a reasonable temperature.

I did my first starter on a tuesday night for a saturday brew and it did its job. I used the shake method and by friday the yeast had flocced to the bottom.

Unless you go way overboard i don't think extra yeast cells will do damage.
 
I just put your numbers into brewersfriend and it looks like you'll be just short, which means you are fine.

As far as what to do now, a few days isn't going to effect the yeast that much so brew today or brew in 2-3 days, it's not going to matter much.

My standard practice is make my starter on Wednesday for a Saturday brew, let it go until Friday on the stir plate and then cold crash it overnight. During the boil, get the flask out of the fridge, decant and let it sit out and warm a bit until I'm ready to pitch.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps.
 
Thanks. I've never made a starter so I dont know how important it is to reach the correct cell count.

I didnt get to brew yesterday because the krausen on the starter didnt stop growing until around 5 pm, which didnt leave me enough time.

I probably wont have time to brew for another two or three days.

Will sitting on the stir plate this long damage the yeast? I was thinking to buy me some time, I'll add another some more wort and continue to stir it until I'm ready to brew. It's still pretty low on cell count according to the starter calculator.

You could have pitched the yeast at any time after you can see activity. There is no real reason to wait it out. Try a couple batches, one with the starter complete and one with the starter just showing activity. I'll bet you can't tell one from the other.

Starter calculators make a bunch of assumptions to come up with the "proper number". Most don't apply to home brewing.
 
Thanks. I've never made a starter so I dont know how important it is to reach the correct cell count.

I didnt get to brew yesterday because the krausen on the starter didnt stop growing until around 5 pm, which didnt leave me enough time.

I probably wont have time to brew for another two or three days.

Will sitting on the stir plate this long damage the yeast? I was thinking to buy me some time, I'll add another some more wort and continue to stir it until I'm ready to brew. It's still pretty low on cell count according to the starter calculator.

That's a high OG. You should be fine, but go a little bigger with the starter in the future. I do 1.5L for nearly every beer I do (5 gallons). I see this pack has 200 billion cells vs most smack packs with 100 billion. That'll be your saving grace. But you really want a big yeast army to get fermenting fast.

On a side note: 24 hours on the plate is well long enough for a starter. Just pop in the fridge after for at least 24 hours before brewing to get a nice yeast cake. Decant most of the liquid when ready to pitch and swirl the flask to get all the yeast back in suspension before pitching. I was told not to leave a starter on a stir plate for more than 48 hours. Just get it in the fridge and pitch within a week. For a 1.5L starter, use pils dme. I use 140-150 grams dme to 1.5L water. Beer Geek Nation uses a bit too much dme. You want the starter OG to be around 1.037-1.040. Best range for yeast reproduction.
 
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Those computerized starter calculators are a bit exaggerated. I use Beersmith and for a 6 gallon batch, average OG with a 2 liter starter it says I still need 14 packets of yeast.
 
Those computerized starter calculators are a bit exaggerated. I use Beersmith and for a 6 gallon batch, average OG with a 2 liter starter it says I still need 14 packets of yeast.
You must be doing something wrong because it told me 1 packet for a 3L starter for my belgian tripel. Maybe yeast date or something not right.
 
Good luck on the first starter. I'm confident it will make a good beer. I've decanted and not decanted - never seen really any difference. Just do what you want and take notes and see for yourself - through your own experience what works for you.
 
I chose not to decant this time, just threw it all in since it wasnt very big. It just started showing signs of life about a half hour ago, and its already throwing out some explosive bubbles. I'm a bit nervous because I tried to cram 5.5 gallons into my fermenting bucket which might hold 6.5 to the brim. I'm using a blowout tube but already getting a little bit of krausen foam in the hose. Fingers crossed.
 
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