Step by step decanting process

[HailSagan666]

Could someone break down the process, step by step, to decant a yeast starter? Could you also define "decant"?

 

[Hello]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFNeZWUq2A8[/ame]

Basically, decanting happens after you cold crash your yeast starter so the yeast cake compacts to the bottom and you pour off the starter wort (now basically beer). Then you add new wort and you let that do its job. You're stepping up a starter if you do this multiple times.

So you make a starter and usually after 24 hours I put it in the fridge. I pour out the liquid leaving the yeast behind. I make new starter wort at another gravity, for example, if I am building up yeast I may start at 1.010 then move up to 1.020. Once I do that second round, I put the starter into the fridge, pour off the liquid, let it come up to room temp if it is brew day and pitch when I'm ready.

That's what I do and that was my understanding of decanting a starter.

 

[kombat]

Put flask in fridge for 24 hours to encourage the yeast to settle out. Gently tilt the flask over a sink and pour out most of the clear liquid, leaving the yeast slurry in the flask. Leave a little of the liquid in the flask to swirl up the yeast so they'll "unstick" from the bottom, and pour it all into your fermenter.

 

[HailSagan666]

Thanks brohams. I'll do this to build up my Belgian strain next time.

 

[Kyler820]

Thanks for the info! I'm using this info to step up a starter for a 15 gal batch of a California Common I'm brewing this weekend. I have my flask crashing in the fridge now. Thanks again for the help, video was great help [emoji482]

 

[sky4meplease]

I like to cold crash for 48 hours to really encourage the less flocculant yeast to settle out otherwise you pour them down the drain with the beer.
Those are the little buggers that keep working to eek out a couple gravity points and clean up your beer toward the end of fermentation.
Time needed to settle everything out can vary from strain to strain.
I will pull a sample from time to time and view under the microscope and a good long 48 hours seems to do the trick for most yeast.

 

[Hoofer]

Dont forget the deminishing returns when stepping a starter. There are charts on the web that all the math is done. Just keep the process clean. Its ez.