Starter times?

[m00ps]

^yeah I definitely noticed faster activity when I switched to foam stoppers for my sacch starters. Only issue is it attracts the damn fruit flies so mcuh

 

[BrewMeister49]

Haha! You know, I always place some cheap whiskey in the airlocks. I didn't on this merely because it's a starter Lol learned. Foam stopper? What happens when it blows off?

 

[m00ps]

It just gets soaked up by the foam stopper. Every once in awhile I remove it, wring it out and rinse it, then dunk it in starsan before replacing. No biggie

 

[Gavin C]

Don't know. Never happened to me.

My starters spin at full speed so there is not much in the way of foam build up. Big flask also helps I suppose.

The faster the spin the better the yeast growth per gram of DME

 

[TheMadKing]

I usually start my starters on Thursday before a Saturday brew. Leave it on the stir plate 18-24 hours with foil over it, cold crash in my keezer for at least 12 hours, decant on brew day, let it warm up, add 500mL of fresh DME wort, put it back on the stir plate for 3-4 hours, and pitch when ready

Works great for me. I seem to always have krausen within 6 hours.

 

[BrewMeister49]

To update this, I brewed and kept into. The stir plate. I upped the speed a bit to knock down some of the foam. It was about a 1500 ml starter. Still very active ferm in the starter. It is now bubbling away in the fermenter!

 

[sky4meplease]

From the Yeast book:
Starters greater than 5% of wort volume should be decanted prior to pitch and the starter should be thoroughly cold crashed so you don't decant the less flocculant/higher attenuating yeast still in suspension. Allow the starter to run 12 hours after terminal gravity is reached to allow the yeast to build up glycogen reserves.
I have heard the scientific types floating around these forums reiterate this.
I have also cold crashed for 24 hours and viewed samples under a microscope to find a lot of yeast still in suspension.
I generally cold crash a minimum of 48 hours especially for medium or low flocculating yeast though I recently bottled 6 gallons of American Stout that I pitched a 1.5L starter into at near terminal gravity. We will see the long term effects of that.

 

[BrewMeister49]

It would be nice to have the luxury of building a starter, checking gravities and cold crashing forms few days checking the numbers along the way. I think it's fine either way. I would like to try the build/crash/decant/remake wort, pitch method though to see if there are any differences in taste to the beer. I guess it's all dependent on your OG. When you pitch a starter that has 30-100 billion more yeasties than required for your OG, is it important to decant the rest and worry about what's still in suspension?

 

[sky4meplease]

I suppose it depends on a lot of things including style, yeast strain, fermentation temperature, personal preference etc..
Since I started paying attention to the very small hell even microscopic details involved in my brewing, the results have been profound.
As it relates to yeast I think just building a healthy starter is huge. The little details that go along with it may only be detectable to the highly trained or experienced tasters.
Then again if it didn't matter I suppose they wouldn't have written a book about it.
At the end of the day educate yourself to your content, do what's best for your brewing and by all means... Have Fun!

 

[BrewMeister49]

I guess I'm still trying to find out the best practices for making a starter. (Since I just started making them). I have always just pitched the tube without one. How long does a chilled starter last in the fridge at 38*f? Then do I just leave enough old wort to swirl and pitch or decant all to the yeast cake, make new wort with DME and swirl/pitch?

 

[chickypad]

How long does a chilled starter last in the fridge at 38*f? Then do I just leave enough old wort to swirl and pitch or decant all to the yeast cake, make new wort with DME and swirl/pitch?

I've left it chilled up to about a week with good results. No need to add new wort in that short period of time, just decant most of it on brew day, swirl, and pitch. Like sky4 said some yeasts do need a little longer to settle out anyway. On a perfect schedule I would probably like 24 hr on stir plate and 48 hr chill, but I don't worry too much about it if I'm a little off a little in timing either way.

I see the Yeast reference where they are talking about letting the starter fuly settle, then "Storing the yeast in the same vessel for an additional eight to 12 hours after they reach terminal gravity allows them to build up their glycogen reserves."

I take that to mean it can be part of the chill phase not that that it needs to run hot for an additional 12 hrs, in fact it sounds like that could start burning up reserves. They also mention the bulk of growth should be complete at 24 hrs, 12-18hr in many cases. I wouldn't stress about exact schedules and exact pitch rates too much OP, the fact you're making a starter in the ballpark should get you good results.

 

[Silentnoiz]

I use liquid yeast with a starter on a stir-plate.

Typically I start the starter 48 hours before pitch time. I use Mr.Malty's calculator to get the starter size. Then use this formula to calculate how much DME (oz) to use: (ml/10)*.03527. I do the whole boil/cool/pitch into the starter flask.

It's on the stir-plate for 24 hours, then I cold crash it for 18 hours, then let warm to room temp. I decant then pitch when it's time.

I have a brew (DIPA) fermenting now that I started the starter 24 hours prior to pitch time. When it was time to pitch, I just pitched the entire volume of the starter (without decanting) just to experiment and see how it differs. It was by far the fastest starting fermentation I've ever had in terms of gassing off CO2.

 

[Nate]

This is a good thread. I had no idea there were such varied techniques being used for starters. We've always tried to use a 24 to 30 hour window, no decanting and no chilling. At pitch time, just give a big swirl and pitch it all. lol.

This can probably go into the category of "more than one way to skin a cat" and they all make beer... just a question of what's optimum.

 

[sky4meplease]

As with any yeast culture at fridge temps death will occur at some rate but really a few days or a week or two won't ruin your starter. If it makes you lose sleep at night then make the starter a little bigger.
Heck the hardest part is thinking that far in advance. I normally bottle my last brew, brew a fresh batch and make a starter for my next brew within a few days or a week of each other, let the starter run its course and cold crash it until my next brew day a week or two later.
Just pull the starter out of the fridge several hours ahead of time so it can acclimate, decant and ladle some fresh oxygenated wort into the starter, stir it up to homogenize and pitch.