Our first starter, confused on the timing

[Hopelesst]

We're brewing our first big beer, and in the interest of doing things right we're going to prepare a starter for it. This is our first starter, and while John Palmer's book makes the process seem easy and accessible, it does raise a concern.

For our 1.086 ale he recommends 300 billion cells. To obtain that cell count he recommends a 4 liter starter. However, his directions tell me to build the starter up 8 oz at a time. That means building up the starter eight times! We don't have the minimum 9 days that would take. Is it ok to use larger amounts of starter wort to cut down on time?

Secondly, he mentions the importance of letting the starter sit for 24 to 48 hours to let the yeast build up their nutrient reserves. Is this waiting period required between each step in building up the starter, our only at the end before pitching?

Thanks!

 

[MichaelBrock]

I would do a little more reading. Check out mrmalty.com for a lot of very informative information on yeast starters and yeastcalc.com, a great site for helping tp plan stepped starters.

 

[Brew-boy]

Mrmalty.com will set you free.

 

[LLBeanJ]

+1 on yeastcalc.com

8 oz. per step? No, you don't need to do that. As a general rule, when stepping up, it's safe to double your starter size with each step (e.g., step 1: 1L --> step 2: 2L --> step 3: 4L, etc.).

As long as your yeast is fairly fresh, you should easily be able to reach your desired pitching rate in two steps (1L & 2L) even if not using a stir plate. Most of us do cold crash our starters for 24-48 hours between steps so that the liquid can be decanted before adding more wort for the next step. Once the desired count has been reached, you can either pitch the whole thing or cold crash again for 24-48 hours, decant liquid, and pitch the remaining slurry.