Starter without DME?

[rowco]

Hey gurus, kind of a noob question here... I'm planning on brewing a nice dubbel tomorrow, and I went to make a starter this evening and realized I'm out of DME and my LHBS is closed.

What are my best options? I have plenty of corn sugar lying around and a refractometer... Could I just make the starter from h20'and that if I hit the gravity of solution?

I have some wort fermenting for an IPA I could wine thief from... But that doesn't seem smart...

Pour a similar style beer and add corn sugar? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Yooper]

You could do a real wort starter- mash some grain, make a wort, and boil it up to sanitize it.

Otherwise, you need some DME. You don't want to make a starter with sugar, as you want to reproduce yeast that will ferment maltose.

 

[rowco]

Fair enough. I'll grind some grain then. Thanks for the quick reply.