starter size?

[ALPS]

While I was making a starter from my smack pack (20 oz water, 2 oz DME, 3 hops pellets), I wondered how big a starter could be made from this pack.

Could I have used a half gallon of water and made a bigger yeast starter from this smack pack?? Would I want to?

Is there a ratio of water to DME that is ideal? What is too rich? Too lean?

 

[david_42]

If you want a really big starter (and you just might for a very heavy ale), make a pint and then step the pint up to a half gallon after a day. The reasoning is to keep the yeast in a dominate population and not give the nasties any chance of competing.

Most books recommend a wort of about 1020. I've never seen hops used in starters, I'd be worried about contamination.

 

[Walker]

I've seen it suggested to use a couple hop pellets in a starter, and it's actually to act as a preservative of sorts. Also, from what I've read, contaimination from hops is next to impossible. (That's why you can just throw them 'as-is' into a fermenter for dry-hopping witout worrying about infections.)

-walker

 

[PT Ray]

I typically use a 750ml starter. I premake the media using a about 6oz of LME and a few hop pellets for a two liter batch. I keep this frozen in a 2 liter bottle and thaw it out when I am ready to make my starters.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I usually make a 2qt starter using 6oz of DME for a starter ~1035. I have read one theory that a starter should be ~70% of the OG of your recipe, but the 1035 number seems to work in all cases for me.

A lot of people get fermentation in a 5g batch using the smack pack without a starter at all, so I can't see any problems using one to make a starter of any reasonable volume.