Need a flask for starters?

[LateraLex]

I've done a number of extract brews and am starting to plan a move toward to BIAB as my next step. I bought a huge kettle and will be building a wort chiller. It seems starters are the standard as you progress - even with dry yeast. So my question is: Is a starter kit necessary to make a good starter? It seems fairly expensive for a piece of glass, and I'm wondering if I can't just make the starter in a pot, cool it - then stick it in a glass jar or tupperware for a day or two?

Not trying to be a total cheapskate - but am having a harder time justifying spending $30 for a 2L flask than I am $40 for a homemade wort chiller, etc.

 

[leolee86]

This is the one I use. I just liked the dme and fermicade that came with it

http://morebeer.com/view_product/19886//Yeast_Starter_Kit_1000_ml

And for 13 bucks its not bad

 

[Thumbless Bastard Brewing]

Go to Goodwill and pick up a flower vase for around $5. Works perfect. On the DIY forum you can find plans to build a stir plate. Doing a big starter will make difference in your beers.

 

[wormraper]

dude, a $1 1/2 gallon mason jar at Goodwill is all you need. swish it around every hour or so to get it moving and you're good to go

 

[Golddiggie]

Get a 2L or 3L flask. IMO a 1L flask is almost useless. Get/make a stirplate too. Otherwise you'll need to make much larger starters that use more DME and take longer to finish.

Oh, and YES a flask IS really worth getting. Its borosilicate glass (Pyrex) so its strong, can be boiled in (gas range only) and strong. Don't take it from the stove and dunk it in ice water but still.

Personally, I cook the starter in a SS pot, chill it in a cold water bath in the sink then pour it into my flask (one of three). That then goes on my stirplate for ~24 hours and then gets cold crashed so that I can easily decant the spent starter.

Starters are more often used with liquid yeast due to cell count. Use one of the calc sites to figure out what size you need to make.

 

[LateraLex]

Ok, I think I'll start with a mason jar/whatever glass - and eventually graduate to the real thing. I'm guessing if you just give it a swirl it's a bit harder to calculate the yeast population - but I'm sure anything will be better than what I've been doing to date (just chucking the dry yeast packets into the wort - which by the way, has been working great so far!)

 

[homebrewdad]

Psh. I'd *like* to have a neato mad scientist flask for starters, but for now, I use these - and my fermentations take off like rockets.

Yes, that is a sweet tea jug from the grocery store.

 

[LateraLex]

That's excellent. Was the note there all along, or the result of an accident?

Psh. I'd *like* to have a neato mad scientist flask for starters, but for now, I use these - and my fermentations take off like rockets.

Yes, that is a sweet tea jug from the grocery store.

 

[ak-71]

If you don't use stir plate - any sanitazable vessel should do. For stir plate you need flat bottom. Flasks look cool - the only reason I got one (I don't boil in it)

 

[Jhoss]

until then, some tools of my trade. Some mason jars for culturing yeast (Bells Pale - for example). You can see in the small jar a ridge of yeast - I decant off the liquid and pour it into the quart mason jar, from that into growler and from that into a 5 gallon better bottle to get to a six quart starter. Decant off and pitch. Wash up some and save.

 

[hogwash]

I use a clear half gallon growler for starters when I use liquid yeast.

You don't need to make a starter for dry but rehydrating is recommended.

 

[Scuba_Stan]

+1 to using a Growler. I use the 1gallon one for my 2L starters and .5gallon for the 1L starters.

However I plan on getting a small flask or beaker soon so I can use my stirplate.

 

[YeastHerder]

Neat to see all the different ways people are doing this. Here is mine:

I use a pair of 32 oz glass screw-cap bottles that I rinse with starsan. I plan on upgrading to a single 1 gallon glass apple juice jug, but I need to drink all that apple juice first...

1 cup DME + 1 quart water, boil it 5 minutes, cool it down in a water bath, pour it into one of the bottles, add half of a White Labs yeast vial (I'm cheap and double the number of uses this way), cap and shake like mad to aerate, pour half off into the other bottle. I cover the tops with tinfoil, not an airlock. Setup and clean up are done in under 45 minutes.

Then, whenever I walk by them sitting on the kitchen counter, I give them a good swirl. This probably happens three or four times that night and a couple times the next day.

I started one around 6pm last night that I pitched into a fresh brew today around noon. Five hours later, I have good action through the blow off tube. Before using starters, and just pitching the whole White Labs vial, I didn't see this amount of action until at least 12-16 hours.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Here's a video of what I use:

[ame="http://youtu.be/kkWH_arIqhg"]http://youtu.be/kkWH_arIqhg[/ame]

1 qt mason jar on a cheapy stir plate with a 2" hex bar with spin ring.