Starter yeast

[marcus11x]

I wanna brew tomorrow and need to start my yeast. However, I just realized I have no DME. Is there anything else that works just as good? Thanks.

 

[NinjaPoodles]

I strongly suggest buying some, you can use anything that has sugar (fermentable that is), like sugar, corn sugar, natural brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, dextrose, sugar powder, liquid malt extract, anything!! BUT, using big quantities of these will change the beer taste.... In the wrong way. I suggest not to use more than 30-40% of sugar or corn sugar of the sugar content when making beer (the less of these, the better). If i had really no choise I'd opt for honey since it's smoother, then again.. The taste.

For all the time you'll be waiting and caring of this little baby beer, I suggest atleast going to the supermarket to buy liquid malt extract.

Your beer quality goes with the ingredients quality (and careness of sanitized procedures of course).

Best luck!!

 

[marcus11x]

Thank you!!

 

[pvault98]

A bigger problem with using simple sugars is that you will grow a lot of yeast that will not be able to metabolize the maltose and maltotriose in the wort. You need DME or some 2 row and a mini mash.

 

[marcus11x]

Thanks, guys. I will go get some DME tomorrow.

 

[boydster]

Sugar has zero nutritional value. Definitely grab some DME. Trying to grow yeast in a solution of any kind of simple sugar plus water will result in little-to-no yeast growth. Braukaiser did a great experiment showing the difference in the amount of new yeast cells generated in wort with varying amounts of sugar added, and the all-malt wort did the best, hands down. The all-sugar starter yielded no appreciable growth.

Edit: here's a link to the experiment. http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2013/07/07/yeast-growth-on-malt-and-sugar/

 

[marcus11x]

Good stuff, Boydster