Questions about Yeast Starters

[NuclearBrewer]

Hello everybody, I am planning on making a yeast starter for the following recipe (see below) and have a few questions about doing so.

I am planning on brewing this Sunday (8/31) later in the day and just bought the ingredients today (8/28), giving me a couple days to make a starter. I will be traveling tomorrow from Buffalo, NY to the Syracuse, NY area (about a 3 hour drive to my parent’s house) where my brewing equipment is. I will be making this trip late Friday night, and would like to make the starter once I get to my parent's house. I have a WYeast smack pack, should I ‘smack’ it when I get up to go to work (2:15am Friday), so that is has plenty of time, and will be ready for later that night?

Another question is what size starter should I use? (I have a 2000mL flask, light DME, yeast nutrient, drilled stopper, and airlock – no stir plate yet, hopefully one of my projects this weekend.)

About stepping up the starter size:
-- Is this needed for this recipe, or just make a decently large single starter? (a full 2L, 1.040 starter OG vs 500mL starter, then 1000mL starter, then 2000mL starter)
-- Since I only have one flask, can I just decant the liquid (once the yeast has flocculated), and then add fresh wort to the yeast cake, or should separate flasks be used?
-- Would you increase the gravity of the starter wort when you 'step up' (from 1.040 to 1.060 OG, for example) as well as the volume, or just the volume of wort used (from 500mL to 1L, keeping 1.040 OG for example)?

If anyone needs more information to yield a better answer, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I also apologize in advance if all of this has been covered; I have tried my best at searching, but most likely overlooked information.

This is my first post on the forums, so I guess I’m finally out of lurking. This is a wonderful site, and I look forward to doing my best to learn from, and contribute to, the community.

Thank you.

Recipe (trimmed down a bit from what BTP spit out):
9-E Strong Scotch Ale
Size: 5.0 gal
Original Gravity: 1.073 (1.070 - 1.130)
Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (1.018 - 1.030)
Color: 17.2 (14.0 - 25.0)
Alcohol: 7.25% (6.5% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 25.76 (17.0 - 35.0)
Ingredients:
7 lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract
2 lbs Dry Light Malt Extract
8 oz Toasted Pale Malt
8 oz Crystal Malt 120°L
2 oz Chocolate Malt
1 oz Peat Smoked Malt
1 oz Challenger (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 ea WYeast 1728 Scottish Ale

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.30

 

[malkore]

It only takes maybe 2-4 hours for the smack pack to really swell up when its fresh. Since you're making a starter...it doesn't really matter how swollen the pack is, just try to have it about the same temperature as your starter wort (70F).

Your brew is higher gravity but it still doesn't need a huge starter...not like a lager. I wouldn't worry about stepping it up beyond a 1.040 wort. I'd go for 1L starter at that gravity, pitch yer smack pack into it, and chill.

Really aerate the starter wort. Shaking is viable since you have a small vessel to manhandle. pure O2 or an aquarium pump plus filter would be more efficient but not required since you plan to make a stir plate.

In your situation you really just wanna boost the yeast a bit, and mostly wake them up in the 1.040 gravity starter, as 1.073 is getting 'thick' and makes it harder on the yeast.

 

[shertz]

I would look to Mr. Malty for answers to your questions. I use 2L starters that I make 12-18 hours before brewing.

 

[NuclearBrewer]

@shertz: I was on the Mr.Malty site earlier today, but it was only a link to a calculator, forgot to go back and look around, but thank you for the resource.

@malkore: Thank you for the help deciding how to go about this.

Edit: Answered my own questions that I posted here by reading more.

 

[Jamo99]

You want to keep your starters around 1.040, even for high gravity beers like barleywines. The starter is to both build up the cell count of the yeast, and to get them used to fermenting maltose. For really high gravity brews like a barleywine, you would make a large 1.040 starter and let it ferment out, if you need to make a starter larger than your vessel (according to Mr. Malty's optimum pitch count), you could then decant and add fresh cooled wort.

A stir plate is nice to have, but is by no means necessary. I just give the flask a good swirl to resuspend all the yeast whenever I pass by or think about it. Also, myself and most others just go with a sanitized piece of aluminum foil over the top of the flask. It allows some oxygen to get in when swirling. It also allows you to place the starter in the fridge to floc the yeast. If you use and airlock the differential pressure because of the cooling liquid will suck the water into your flask.

 

[NuclearBrewer]

@Jamo99: Yea, I thought I had read somewhere about the decanting the starter and adding fresh wort, but I wasn't able to find where I saw it again, so I figured it was best to ask. Good idea on the aluminum foil, but hopefully the airlock I have will function as it is supposed to and allow it to bubble in both directions (the 1 piece style). My main reason for wanting a stir plate is that I work and have clinical rotation for school for the vast majority of the day (up for work at 2:15am, go from there to clinical, get home at 5pm), so I'd like to have something else doing the agitating for me. Once I make a stir plate, I can make the starter a couple days before going to brew, then refrigerate the starter the night before I go to my parent's house to brew, and keep it cool on the way there.

Should the refrigerated starter come to room temperature before it is pitched, or is pitching it while it is still cold okay?

 

[eddie]

Here's some links that should help you out:

MB Raines, Ph.D. - Guide to Yeast Culturing for Homebrewers - Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society (Los Angeles Homebrewing)

Proper Yeast Pitching Rates

Yeast Starters - Home Brewing Wiki

Some of it's some pretty heady stuff but there's a wealth of information to be found.

 

[Jamo99]

You want your yeast to be in the same neighborhood of the wort that it is being pitched into. 10-15 degrees or so is fine. Too much of a difference in temperature will shock the yeast. If you are driving after chilling the yeast to floc it, you may want to decant before the drive. I'm sure the drive will get a decent amount of the yeast back into suspension. If that happens, you can always just pitch the whole starter though.

 

[NuclearBrewer]

@eddie: Thanks for the links, I'm used to reading scientific articles, it is required for my classes, just too bad my classes weren't on the same material!

@Jamo99: Yea, that is another good point, I considered keeping it cool, but forgot how bumpy a car ride is. I don't have to worry about that this weekend, but I will definitely keep it in mind for the future. Thank you for the help!