My first starter!

[FishH2o]

Hey yall i thought I would share some pic of my first starter. It was a fun process and I will be making starters for all my batches going forward! Thanks to everyone on this board for the wealth of information about starters. Since I have found this site I have learned so damn much!

My brew dog Maggie.

Gota have a beer! Bells Winter Ale

Steal Your Face! Always need some DEAD!!!

The Brew Network "Brew Strong" podcast on yeast starters.

So I used Mr. Malty's "Pitch rate Calculator" this is a great tool. I wish they would add something like this to the BeerSmith software.

The yeast! I picked Whit Labs WLP001 a California Ale yeast.

Some of the equipment I used.

Leveled 1/4 cup DME. I used a total of 3/4 cup.

1200ML of water measured out.

 

[FishH2o]

I mixed the DME in a bowl before the boil. This made it easy to deal with the DME lumping up.

The starting gravity was 1.030. Jamil recommends a starting gravity of 1.040 - 1.030 for starters. Apparently you don't want to make it too strong it could stress the yeast.

Added the yeast nutrient to the mix. I used 1/4 teasoop.

Heating the mix on my stove.

Here comes the boil. I had foil covering the wort until the boil started. They I moved to a foam stopper. This will allow for the steam to sanitize the stopper.

Sanitizing the air stone and thermometer.

Almost done with the boil. As you can see I have the foam stopper now.

Finished! The Temp of the starter wort was 211 by the time I inserted the sterilized thermometer.

Cooling the worth in a ice bath.

 

[FishH2o]

It took about 10 minutes to get the wort temp down to 79 degrees.

Aerating the starter wort.

Adding the WLP001.

Vortex from the stir plate.

Its been fermenting for about 6 hours now. I will update yall when its finished.

This was a very easy process. I had time to kick back 3 beers, listen to some of the poscast and play with my new stir plate . I will be making one for every brew from now on.

Thanks everyone,
FishH2o

 

[emjay]

Very nice.

Only thing to note really is that aerating the starter wort in the beginning with a pump and diffusion stone isn't really necessary considering that the stir plate will be aerating it constantly anyways. I'd be VERY surprised if it made more than a 1-2 percent difference, if any at all... they achieve the same thing. Only reason we don't aerate the fermenter itself with a stirplate is the ridiculousness of the size and expense of one capable of stirring 5 gallons (on the small side!), especially when it's only aerated pre-pitch (continuing to do so would lead to serious oxidation of the beer and ruin the flavor... with a yeast starter this occurs as well but since it's all about increasing cell counts and health and not meant to be consumed, it shouldn't be a problem.)

I have a similar aerator and stir plate as well, and the aerator is a bit of a pain, and only really worth using if it can contribute noticeably to the finished product, which is far from the case here since you're using a stir plate anyways. It won't HURT to continue doing it, it's just a bit pointless and I thought maybe I could save you that extra trouble.

 

[snowveil]

Awesome write up...I can see this being extremely helpful for someone who hasn't made a starter before. As emjay already stated, the aeration prior to using the stir plate isn't really necessary.

Where'd you get the foam stopper?

 

[FishH2o]

Yeah I know the air was not necessary and the stir plate does the same thing. However, I just received everything in the mail yesterday and I knew it would not hurt anything so it was a good time to test everything and get acclimated with the new gear. Thanks again for yall comments and looking out. With the wealth of knowledge on this board I'm sure i will be brewing great beer soon.




The one thing I'm surprised no one has said anything about is my starter is not the correct size. Looking back at the pic of the calculator I should have made a starter that was 1400ml. My Malty's pitch rate said I needed one that is 1.36 liters and I only made 1200ml. I'm sure it wont be huge deal but its little things like this that I need to double check and recheck before I proceed. Good learning lesson though.

FishH2o

 

[FishH2o]

Where'd you get the foam stopper?

Williams brewing

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/_9_-_10_FOAM_STOPPER_P430C108.cfm

 

[BeernuT100]

Yeah I know the air was not necessary and the stir plate does the same thing. However, I just received everything in the mail yesterday and I knew it would not hurt anything so it was a good time to test everything and get acclimated with the new gear. Thanks again for yall comments and looking out. With the wealth of knowledge on this board I'm sure i will be brewing great beer soon.




The one thing I'm surprised no one has said anything about is my starter is not the correct size. Looking back at the pic of the calculator I should have made a starter that was 1400ml. My Malty's pitch rate said I needed one that is 1.36 liters and I only made 1200ml. I'm sure it wont be huge deal but its little things like this that I need to double check and recheck before I proceed. Good learning lesson though.

FishH2o

You should step up your starters anyways. 500-800ml from a vial then 1500-2000ml then up. So you really didn't do anything wrong with the 1200 although there is a science to it so you probably did not get optimum growth starting at 1200ml. I can quote the yeast book if you are interested but it's in the car right now.

 

[FishH2o]

I can quote the yeast book if you are interested but it's in the car right now.

What yeast book is it? I've been wanting to buy YEAST, THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO FERMENTATION. I just have not found it in town yet so I need to order it. Once you get a chance yes please quote it if you don't mind. If I messed this one up then once I know how to do it the correctly I will make a new thread correcting my mistakes.

Thanks again!!!
FishH2o

 

[BeernuT100]

What yeast book is it? I've been wanting to buy YEAST, THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO FERMENTATION. I just have not found it in town yet so I need to order it. Once you get a chance yes please quote it if you don't mind. If I messed this one up then once I know how to do it the correctly I will make a new thread correcting my mistakes.

Thanks again!!!
FishH2o

That is the one I am referring to:

Yeast, The Practical Guide to Fermentation

Happy Brewing!
-bn

 

[BeernuT100]

After looking at the book, your numbers were closer than I thought.

All starter sizes are based on 100billion cells (1 vial of 001) at an SG of 1.036.

(columns are: Starter Size, New Cells Created, Yield Factor - pg 140)

1. 0.5L - 12 billion - 3.4
2. 0.8L - 38 billion - 6.9
3. 1.0L - 52 billion - 7.4
4. 1.5L - 81 billion - 7.7
5. 2.0L - 105 billion - 7.6
6. 4.0L - 176 billion - 6.3

So your 1200L from 1 vial gave you an estimated cell count of 170billion. Not to bad! There is more information to the table but this board does not have the

code enabled so it ends up just looking like a mess.

-bn

 

[FishH2o]

Awesome! Thank you for posting that. I will pick that book up next week. I called a different LHBS and they have a copy in stock It hasn't been 24 hours and I see little yeasties clumping up spinning around.

Thanks,
FishH2o

 

[FishH2o]

So it's been going for 26 hours. I'm going to brew tomorrow would it be okay to keep it on the stir plate and see if it keeps going or should I put it in the refrigerator?

 

[Newbeerguy]

So it's been going for 26 hours. I'm going to brew tomorrow would it be okay to keep it on the stir plate and see if it keeps going or should I put it in the refrigerator?

Personally I'd stick it in the fridge and drop out as much yeast as possible. I just have a problem putting approx. a liter of unhopped, oxidized fermented malt in my beer

 

[FishH2o]

I hear you.. I would for sure put it in the fridge tomorrow morning and let it settle for 4 - 6 hours.. I'm brewing tomorrow afternoon. It just looks like I should have more.. well thats the problem. This is my first one so I don't know how much is really in it from just looking :-(

 

[emjay]

It depends on the kind of starting wort as well as the wort and volume you're pitching it into. It's really ideal to pitch when it's at high krausen but I am more partial to letting it settle as well Just remember to let it settle FULLY unless for some reason you don't want the best attenuating cells lol

 

[FishH2o]

I don't know if it's just because I used a large 2000ml container but it seems like I did not make that much in my starter. I'm about to start bottling a batch so when I finish that I will post a picture.

 

[superjunior]

curious, how long did you wait from boil to ice bath in that 10 min. cooling process. I'm about to do my first starter with the same gear but the erlenmeyer flask makes me nervous

 

[FishH2o]

curious, how long did you wait from boil to ice bath in that 10 min. cooling process. I'm about to do my first starter with the same gear but the erlenmeyer flask makes me nervous

You will be fine. I had the ice bath waiting so I turned the stove off, made sure my thermometer was sanitized, added the thermometer to the flask then transfered it to the ice bath. My only suggestion is to make sure the depth of the ice bath is less than the wort in the flask. what I'm saying is make sure the ice watter is not higher that the wort. I don't remember where I read it but somewhere I read that if the cold water is deeper than the wort it increases the chance of the flask breaking.


Good luck!

FishH2o

 

[superjunior]

cool. I guess thats got to be one tough flask to handle such a temp swing

 

[FishH2o]

So I made a nice brown ale with a starting OG of 1.082 and this starter kicked it in HIGH gear. I was very surprised on how little of a lag time I had. Also, it seems like the fermentation is a lot more violent. Yeats are bubbling through the carboy and the temp. has been hard to keep steady at 62.

Needless to say i will be making starter for every batch I brew. I have an Irish Ale 1084 in the flask now for a Stout


Thanks again everyone. I wish I could share a brew with you all...

FishH2o