Newbie Question

[pattim]

OK, so you pitch yeast into a 1 quart bottle and it's a 'starter' but you pitch into the primary and it's not. The only difference I can see is maybe lower specific gravity in the starter bottle?

Thanks,
Patricia

 

[duboman]

OK, so you pitch yeast into a 1 quart bottle and it's a 'starter' but you pitch into the primary and it's not. The only difference I can see is maybe lower specific gravity in the starter bottle?

Thanks,
Patricia

No the difference is the VOLUME of wort you are fermenting into beer

The purpose of the starter is to GROW the cell count up to the correct rate for the pitch into the larger volume wort you want to become beer.

The cell count required is determined by the projected starting gravity of the batch of beer

 

[BigFloyd]

A starter is like feeding your yeast a buffet and having them make new baby yeast to build up your work force.

Pitching them into 5 gallons of wort is more like putting them to work.

 

[day_trippr]

It's a paradox...

Cheers!

 

[Cyclman]

A starter is just making a small beer, pitching into 5G could be considered a large starter if you were to re-pitch it into a 20G batch.

 

[pattim]

Thanks for the replies!

 

[el_caro]

As pointed out by BigFloyd it is not advisable to have too large an initial starter volume for the amount of yeast pitched. Yeast will bud too much result in scarred cells that are not of optimal quality.

 

[BigFloyd]

It's a matter of BALANCE. Balance not for karate only, but also for brewing.



The original script had Mr. Miyagi explaining to Daniel the balance needed to make a yeast starter for his brew, but that obviously wound up on the cutting room floor.